Dium Somnium
by LilithiaWR
Summary: A string of murders leads the team into an ancient struggle between supernatural factions and Klarion the Witch Boy is intent on sparking a new war, with all of humanity caught in the crossfire. Angels and demons, witches and templars, the occasional resurrection... The team is about to learn of the darker side of magic. Featuring Constantine, professional BAMF, and new characters.
1. Chapter 1 - A Murder or Two

**First of all, this is rated a very VERY strong T for _violence, language, and probably more_. Like sex jokes. Cause I'm dirty. I'll probably change it to M after a couple chapters. Heads are gonna roll. Literally. Blood, gore, all the good stuff. I'm warning y'all now.**

 **Heads.**

 **Will.**

 **Roll.**

 **I mean, this story literally starts off with a double murder. Fun stuff!**

 **A few comments before you start reading:**

 **\- This takes place between Seasons 1 and 2**

 **\- Robin has become Nightwing, they've recruited Zatanna, but the others will join later**

 **\- I have completely ignored Klarion's origins and taken many liberties with his powers**

 **\- Kinda did the same with Constantine (Yes, he's in this, woohoo!)**

 **\- You may also note some new powers for Aqualad, mostly stuff that makes sense for someone from the depths of the ocean (like enhanced vision... because _hello_ it's dark down there!)**

 **Now... let's begin!**

* * *

 **Because every good story**

 **Starts with a murder**

 **Or two**

"Aww, why won't you talk?"

The voice of a young boy whined.

"Nasty, nasty little humans!"

The boy cackled as he sat on top of a desk with his legs crossed child-like and a cat purring in his lap. He looked to be a young teen, tall, thin, and lanky, with jet black hair gelled into a stylish coif, two stumpy black horns protruding from his skull at his hairline. His grey eyes glinted red with magic, skin tinged blue in its paleness.

The two hostages in his thrall were struggling against the magical ropes that secured their limbs and gagged their mouths. One of them was an old man with wide blue eyes and a balding head, a man known as Dr. Leon Thompson, archeologist and history professor for Penn State. The young, unfortunate man bound beside him was his student assistant, dressed primly in a sweater vest and neatly-pressed slacks. No wonder Klarion itched to tear him apart. His outfit was so... preppy.

The Witch Boy giggled at the fear in their eyes, so thick in the air he could _taste_ it – and it was delicious!

His fingers twitched, causing the bound humans to float upwards, knocking a few of their notes off of the table in the university office. The door had been sealed shut by magic, it was a late Friday evening, and no one was on campus. No one would save them tonight. In his lap, his familiar Teekl preened as it shared his pleasure.

"If you don't tell me what I want to know, then I will resort to some very painful measures…" Klarion nearly clapped in glee at the thought, a wide grin on his face. The professor and his assistant exchanged nervous glances. "Of course, I will be more than happy to begin…"

"W-Wait!" Dr. Thompson's muffled voice cried through his gag.

Klarion actually looked disappointed that they had caved so easily. And here he had been looking forward to drawing a bit of blood. Red was such a pretty color! He sighed and snapped his fingers, the gag on the man's face disappearing.

"M-My notes are hidden in the b-books!" The old man gasped, licking his lips in an effort to get rid of the awful residual taste of magic. "One page in every book! Please, just let my student go!"

" _Every_ book, you say?" Klarion glanced over the jam-packed bookcases that lined the walls of the professor's office, ignoring the man's plea and the student's whimpering. "How clever."

With a wave of his hand and a few short mumbles, Klarion's eyes glowed red for a moment and a swirl of magic seemed to whip through the small room like a whirlwind, violently yanking out every book and opening them with their pages flipping fast. The notes he was after were picked out and floated down towards Klarion, arranging themselves in a neat pile in front of where he sat. When it was done, the books were unceremoniously dropped, a string of _thuds_ echoing in the office as the books piled onto the floor, making their owner and his student flinch at their mistreatment.

Klarion slowly reached out to the notes and stroked them, before gathering them in his hands and carefully shuffling through them with uncharacteristic gentleness. His eyes flickered across the pages faster and faster, holding his breath as he realized the authenticity of the notes.

"Well, what d'ya know…" He whispered, looking down at Teekl with wide eyes. "Those filthy humans actually got it right for once."

Teekl meowed loudly in triumph as Klarion's eyes glinted red. He turned to the two humans in question, a dark chuckle escaping him as he addressed Dr. Thompson.

"All your colleagues made fun of you for chasing after fairytales…" He chuckled as Teekl leapt onto the floor and he floated into a standing position. "And you never realized that you had found the real thing… oh the irony…"

The doctor gasped. "They're real?!"

"Did you ever stop to think that there was a reason your ancestors tried to hide all this?" Klarion asked in a taunting voice. His eyes darkened as his words turned into a growl, "Or why your ancestors tried to _exterminate_ us?"

The two hostages gulped as the crazy, whimsical demeanor vanished, only to be replaced by a vengeful boy whose anger was reflected in the dark red magic that emanated off of him in waves. A razor-sharp grin crawled across his face as his eyes darkened until they were completely black.

"Unfortunately for you two, you have served your usefulness." Klarion held up his hand, fingers wide and slowly making a clenching motion. Two magical ropes appeared around their necks, glowing red as they shrunk smaller and smaller, the humans desperately gasping for air. "But like all mortals, you must die."

The two men twitched a few more times before they suffocated, Klarion allowing their bodies to drop to the ground. Teekl hopped on top of the assistant and shredded his sweater vest with his claws while Klarion snatched a folder from the desk and deposited the notes within. The familiar was just about to bite into the student's neck when his master snapped his fingers.

"No eating." Klarion tutted. "That one would give you indigestion anyway. Too much cologne."

Teekl whined in protest, but soon jumped off of the body.

"Let's go, Teekl." Klarion hummed in content as he waved his hand, the door unlocking and swinging open as he walked through. His familiar bounded after him, leaping onto his shoulders and curling its tail around his neck, his purring reverberating through the boy's shoulders.

"At long last… I've found the others."

* * *

The Young Justice team was grim-faced as they arrived at the university, the entire history department cut off by yellow caution tape with the police milling about. The chief detective seemed to hesitate at the sight of them, but wordlessly let them through, leading them down the hallway to the crime scene.

Everything was a mess. Although the bodies had already been moved, the office showed signs of intrusion: the shelves were bare of everything while the books that had once sat there were strewn haphazardly around the office.

Zatanna gasped as they entered the office, grabbing her head as she grits her teeth. "Guys, I'm sensing some seriously bad juju in here!"

"You mean magic?" Wally asked in a doubtful voice.

Zatanna's face was pale, almost nauseous as she nodded, not even bothering to scold Wally for his condescending tone. "It's dark magic… really, really bad stuff."

Nightwing got to work inspecting the scene from top to bottom with the help of Zatanna while the rest of the team had split up to speak with witnesses. Aqualad remained just outside the office and turned to the detective.

"Tell us what you know." The Atlantean ordered.

The man sighed and rubbed the back of his head, messing up his hair. "It's not much. The murders happened a few days ago, rigor mortis had long since set in by the time we got here. The victims must have been killed over the weekend, no one found them until Monday morning. There is evidence that they were killed by strangulation, but we can't identify a murder weapon – no rope burns or fingerprints on the bodies. As you can see, the entire office has been ransacked, but as far as we know, Dr. Thompson has not been working on anything outstanding enough to warrant something like assassination."

"So no motive." Aqualad frowned.

"Not as far as we know." The detective shook his head negatively. "No enemies either, the man mostly kept to himself. His colleagues say that he mostly worked on private projects when he wasn't on an official job. Not much of a social life; no family except a brother in Virginia."

"What about the student?" Aqualad asked him.

The detective sighed again and shrugged his shoulders. "Completely normal kid, no bad history, honor roll student all his life. The professor is the higher profile here, I think the kid just got caught in the middle of it – whatever ' _it_ ' is."

Aqualad sighed and nodded, waving the man off as he turned to speak with his team. Nightwing was using his tweezers to collect hair samples while Zatanna had her eyes closed and was doing… something with magic, he would guess. Superboy and Miss Martian were speaking with the first responders while Artemis and Kid Flash approached.

"I talked with the secretary." Kid Flash said as he moved toward Aqualad, flanked by a frowning Artemis. "She was the one to discover the bodies this morning. Poor girl."

"She said the door was locked when she came in, but she could smell something bad from outside." Artemis wrinkled her nose at the thought. "So, she became suspicious and asked the janitor to use his master key and open it up. It wasn't a pleasant surprise."

"Whoever was here was using high-level magic." Zatanna joined them as she exited the office. "More powerful than me, certainly. I think he used magic to kill the victims, and that's why we don't have a murder weapon."

Kid Flash snorted at the thought of magic, but was quickly interrupted by an elbow to the ribs courtesy of Artemis.

"Can you guess who it might be?" Aqualad asked her, ignoring the couple.

"It's… familiar…" Zatanna frowned. "I can't place it, but I'm almost certain I've faced this person in battle before."

"I don't think these hairs are human." Nightwing's voice carried over from the office as he held up a plastic bottle to the light, whatever within it flashing red. "We should go back to Mount Justice so I can analyze it further."

Aqualad nodded and turned as he heard Superboy's heavy footsteps behind him, followed by the quieter cadence of Miss Martian.

"I have permission from the coroner to examine the bodies." She told the group, shivering at the thought.

"Hey, that's great!" Nightwing exclaimed as he exited the crime scene, the detective in him making him immune to dead bodies. "Zatanna and I will take a look after I examine my samples."

"Ew…" Zatanna grimaced. "But I suppose Bird Boy has a point. If they were killed with magic, I will know."

Both M'gann and Wally shivered at the thought of just walking into the morgue, let alone examining bodies.

"I talked to some of the police." Superboy said. "Nothing unusual was reported all weekend. Whoever it was hid their tracks very well."

Aqualad sighed; this case was already off to a bad start. "Alright, let's head back to base and let Nightwing analyze his evidence. Zatanna, you and Miss Martian head to the morgue to examine the bodies. Nightwing can head over when he's done."

Miss Martian shuddered. "Do I have to?"

"You can sense things other things the rest of us can't." Aqualad pointed out. "Even if it isn't magic."

"Y'know, sometimes I hate when you're right." The Martian muttered, earning a sympathetic pat on the back from Kid Flash.

A couple hours later the team was back in Mount Justice, Nightwing had disappeared into his personal labs while Zatanna and Miss Martian had gone off to speak with the coroner. Aqualad, Kid Flash, Superboy, and Artemis were in the main room looking up at a giant screen where they were speaking to Batman.

"An unusual crime for sure, but there is not much the League can do for us." Aqualad told him, hoping that Batman would allow them to continue their investigation. The League was too quick to jump in and help their sidekicks, in his opinion, and Kaldur preferred his team working on their own.

"Still, the fact that something has Zatanna worried bodes ill." Batman murmured, his eyes flickering to something off the screen as the sound of his fingers clicking across the keyboard filtered across the audio. "Zatanna is young but she has a good sense for magic. If your murder case involves dark magic, I'm reluctant to let you kids do this on your own."

"Come on, Bats!" Wally protested. "We've been doing this for a couple years now, with minimal League interference. We can do this!"

"We're not kids anymore." Connor growled, glaring up at the screen.

Artemis placed her hand on his shoulder, calming her boyfriend and shushing him with a look. They heard Batman release a deep breath on the audio.

"I'll have one of my contacts look into it. Plus, he might be able to help Zatanna figure out what they are dealing with." Batman paused to see the disappointed faces of the kids in front of him, and sighed. "If it makes you guys feel any better, he's not with the League."

That seemed to mollify the teenagers a bit, their shoulders relaxing. Batman hung up on them as Nightwing walked in and reported his findings. He had found four DNA samples at the crime scene, and only two matched the murder victims. The other samples were distinctly _not_ human, one of them barely humanoid while the other seemed to be an animal of some sort. Still, it was not much to go on, so the group took the zeta tubes into the city and went to meet up with M'gann and Zatanna at the morgue.

Wally and Connor were extremely uncomfortable standing in the same room with twenty or so dead bodies, even if they were stored and out of sight, so those two stayed outside while Kaldur, Artemis, and Nightwing walked into the dissection room.

"Oh thank goodness you're here!" M'gann exclaimed when they walked in, looking a little greener than usual. "Now Zatanna won't be alone with the bodies! I gotta get out of here!"

She nearly bulldozed her teammates in her haste to leave the room, joining Superboy and Kid Flash outside. Zatanna was staring down at the bodies with a deep frown, her skin a little paler than usual even as she waved her hands across the blankets that covered everything but their faces.

"Either of you sense anything?" Kal asked her as Nightwing walked up to the magician and gently ushered her away from the bodies. The Bat kid rubbed her back comfortingly as Zatanna spoke, failing to hide her trembling fingers.

"They were definitely killed by magic." She said, her gaze avoiding the bodies while Artemis walked over to the metal slabs and pulled the sheets over the faces of the victims. "It's all over their bodies, and there's residue where it touched them. I think –"

"Well you certainly don't disappoint."

A voice spoke from the doorway, a thick British accent accompanying the dry sarcasm dripping from his words. The young heroes turned to see a young man walk in, probably in his twenties or around Roy's age, cold blue eyes studying them with condensation, messy blonde hair falling into his face. He was dressed in a long coat and ripped jeans, dark circles under his eyes making him look older than he probably was.

"Who are you?" Aqualad asked defensively as the rest of the team tensed at the sudden intrusion.

"Relax mate." The man waved them down as he casually approached the table and looked down at the bodies laid out on the gurneys. "Bats sent me."

"Wait! You're Constantine, right?" Nightwing asked, suddenly recognizing the guy as someone Batman had contacted once or twice whenever there was something supernatural going on in Gotham.

The blonde man lazily tilted his head to glance at the sidekick form the corner of his eye. "Yep. John Constantine, arcane detective extraordinaire… or somethin' like that." He drawled.

Zatanna pushed past her teammates and approached the gurneys, standing across from the man known as Constantine as he yanked the sheets off of the bodies and stared down into their wide eyes and pained expressions.

"Can you sense what I do?" She asked him, a hopeful look on her face.

"I can probably sense more than you." Constantine told her, a severe expression flashing across his features as he passed his hand over the bodies and something flickered around them for a second. The blonde cursed under his breath. "Damn… good thing Bats sent me."

"What is it?" Artemis finally spoke up.

"Ancient magic, kids." He said as he pulled a strange device out of his jacket pocket, clicking it open, emitting a soft green glow that he directed down onto the bodies.

The green light revealed red residue on their necks and on their wrists and ankles. Red glowing particles hovered around those areas, which Constantine carefully reached out to stick his finger in, avoiding touching the bodies. He brought back a finger covered in the red stuff, which he slowly rubbed between his forefinger and thumb.

"I should be able to trace the magical signature from this." Constantine told them as he put away the device and pulled out a small box inscribed with seals in order to preserve the magic residue that he scraped off his fingers. Then he and Zatanna replaced the sheets on top of the bodies.

"Meaning we find the killer?" Kaldur asked him.

Constantine shrugged. "Only if they're still on this plane of existence."

"You mean Earth?" Nightwing asked in confusion.

"No, I mean if they are even still in this dimension." Constantine muttered, looking exasperated. "Magicians are hard to track because we can cross into worlds beyond space, and sometimes, beyond time. And with ancient magic like this, whoever we're after can probably do both."

"Greeeeeeeeat." Artemis drawled.

"Let's go to my house." Constantine said as he walked away from the gurneys and towards the door. "I keep all the magical supplies there. It'll be easier to track your killer that way."

The team glanced at each other questioningly.

"Batman trusts him." Nightwing pointed out as he met Kaldur's eyes.

Aqualad sighed and nodded. The team exited the dissection room, following Constantine towards the exit.

"Who's this?" Connor asked suspiciously when they reached the entrance to the coroner's office, having not seen the dour man enter the office before. M'gann tried to get a read on the man's mind, but he seemed to have some pretty strong mental shields.

"This is Constantine." Aqualad introduced them. "Batman sent him."

"I thought we told him that we don't need help!" Superboy growled.

Constantine chuckled darkly at this. "Sure ya do. You kids don't even know what you're dealing with!"

Connor turned to glare at the cocky Brit, but Kid Flash patted him on the back, easing his anger. "Come on, Supes, at least he's not with the League."

"Thank god for that." Constantine muttered as he snapped his fingers. To the astonishment of the teenage heroes, a house suddenly appeared in the middle of the road, but the civilians walking by did not seem to see a thing.

"What the –"

"My house." Constantine told them, interrupting Wally's exclamations as he strolled up the steps onto the porch. "Everyone in! I don't like having it on this plane for very long."

The young justice members exchanged bewildered glances before they all scrambled to enter the house, the door swinging shut behind them and the sounds of the city suddenly disappearing. The windows became dark as the streets and sunlight faded away, only to be replaced with darkness. They were standing in an elaborate foyer, a rich red carpet beneath their feet, the walls and floors made of rich mahogany, polished to perfection.

"Welcome to the House of Mystery." Constantine's voice drew their attention as he walked easily through the maze of corridors, eventually leading them to a large library, the shelves filled with books, scrolls, and lined with maps and various artifacts.

"Don't touch anything." He called over his shoulder just as Wally was about to touch a rather _awesome_ looking African mask. "Everything in here is magical and dangerous. Magic isn't all unicorns and sunshine, y'know."

Artemis glared at her boyfriend as he sheepishly backed away from the mask. They all gathered in the central sitting area, Constantine waving for them to take seats around the coffee table while he disappeared and came back with a map of the earth and laid it flat on the table.

"Darling, would you provide our guests with tea?" The magician called aloud as he walked around gathering various devices and magical supplies.

The young heroes glanced at each other with raised brows wondering who the man could be talking to, only to gasp as cups of steaming hot tea appeared in front of them, floating in the air until they reluctantly took ahold of them.

"Don't drop them, their ancient Chinese porcelain." Constantine told them as he approached the coffee table and began drawing a diagram of some kind across the map.

"Wha – how did – what…" Wally stuttered staring down at his cup of tea with wide eyes.

"Magic house." Constantine told him with a deadpan voice. "The House is sentient, so don't insult it. She get's angry."

"The house is _alive_?!" Connor exclaimed, while beside him M'gann was reaching out with her mind to communicate with the House.

"Oh my!" The Martian exclaimed as her eyes flew open, turning to stare at Constantine. "It is! I can feel her! It's just like talking to my ship!"

The rest of the team turned to stare at Miss Martian.

"Riiiight." Constantine drawled, having no knowledge of the relationship between Martians and their ships and thinking that the girl was just crazy.

He turned back to the diagram he was drawing and began to sprinkle purple powder onto the map, picking up a chain necklace with a quartz crystal attached at the end of it. He pulled out the small box that carried the magic residue and opened it, dipping the tip of the crystal into the red glowy stuff. Zatanna leaned in close with an excited expression, ignoring the annoyed glares that the Brit was sending her way, studying his every move as she attempted to make sense of his magic.

"Look kid, if ya wanna learn just ask." Constantine muttered as he rudely pushed the girl back into her seat. "But I can't work with ya breathin' down my neck."

Nightwing made to protest the man's rough treatment, but Zatanna waved him off. The blonde magician stood over the table holding onto the end of the chain, the tip of crystal hanging down from it just barely grazing the map, glowing red with magical residue.

"Okay, listen up." Constantine told them as he began to gently sway the chain in a circular motion. "This is a tracing spell. It will match the magical signature of the residue to its owner, and the crystal will point to the location of that person on the map. That is, _if_ they are currently on Earth."

Wally scoffed at the mention of magic, only to suffer from several glares directed at him from his teammates.

"Let's begin." Constantine stated as he began to murmur words under his breath, low and guttural and completely incomprehensible to the young justice team. Zatanna strained to understand what language he was speaking in, as there were a few that held magical power, but could not recognize the words.

The chain began to swing faster and faster until the crystal suddenly yanked forward and stabbed through the map and into the table.

Constantine ceased his mutterings and they all stared down at the location of the map.

"Well… looks like we're going to Massachusetts."

* * *

"Salem, Massachusetts." Klarion hummed as he walked down the streets of the colonial city, earning strange looks from the civilians milling about with Teekl curled around his shoulders (and the horns, but that was secondary, no?). The city had changed a lot over the years, wooden buildings replaced by metal and glass, the streets wide and paved, horse and carriages replaced by cars and bicycles. Still, many of the buildings retained their colonial architecture, an echo of the past that still seemed too soon for him.

"Good memories, right Teekl?"

The cat hissed in displeasure.

"Yeah, agreed." The witch boy chuckled as he turned down a small alleyway that led to a small cemetery behind the old church that had stood over the village since the colonial era. Where once the cemetery had been placed at the edge of the village, it was now swallowed up by the city, hidden behind apartment buildings, the church steeple now dwarfed by skyscrapers. Religion was outdated now, it was a weekday and the church was empty.

It was easy for Klarion to unlock the back door and sneak in.

It felt like stepping back in time, walking down the aisle of the church as the sun shone through the colored glass and dust floated in the air. Memories came unbidden to him, of screaming and yelling, fire and pain.

" _Witchcraft_ _! Devilry!"_

The building was silent save for the whisper of Klarion's footsteps on the worn carpet, his grey eyes flickering over the altar as he stopped just before the steps leading up to it.

" _Y_ _e shall burn for thy sins!"_

Then his gaze drifted downwards, landing on the worn tile beneath the altar, a small, nearly invisible cross carved onto the tile centered underneath the altar.

" _Pray for mercy, sinner!"_

Hundreds of innocents had died in the witch hunts, pathetic humans driven by fear, taking pleasure in the pain of others. They killed those who were different, those who were misunderstood, and yet they were all equally human.

Except one.

Klarion approached the altar and knelt down in front of it, reaching underneath the table and pressing his fingers against the worn-down carving on the tile. A templar cross, every side equal in length, nearly invisible as the years weathered it away.

Teekl jumped off of his shoulders as he stood up, the cat leaping onto the wall and making his way into the rafters. Klarion curled his fingers, calling forth the magic that coursed through him like blood in the veins, red magic crackling at his fingertips. He raised his hands and blasted the altarpiece right out of the ground, the table flying backwards and into the windows above them, shattering the glass which rained down like colorful raindrops. Then Klarion aimed down at the tile floor, sending a condensed beam of energy towards the ground, incinerating the stone beneath.

Eventually the floor gave way, revealing a hidden chamber beneath the altar area, the walls crudely carved by pick and hammer, the floor covered in dried, decayed soil that had been sitting there for centuries. In the middle of the chamber sat a pristine sarcophagus, a coffin of white marble, inscribed with seals of old, ancient words worn by time but their power remained.

Klarion ceased his attack on the floor and dropped into the alcove, approaching the sarcophagus.

"Ouch!" He hissed as the coffin burned his fingers at the touch. The words carved along the rim of the lid glowed, glyphs of protection warding him off.

" _Mrow…_ " Teekl called from above, perched primly on one of the wooden beams supporting the ceiling.

"Yes, I know, Teekl." Klarion snapped back. "I was just testing the strength of the wards!"

" _Meow!_ "

"Yes, yes, I'm hurrying." The witch boy muttered as he pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and looked over the diagrams that Dr. Thompson had compiled. The man certainly was proving useful, wasn't he?

Putting the paper away, Klarion began chanting under his breath, the red hue of his magic darkening to dark purple as he walked around the sarcophagus and began to press against the invisible protections that kept it from him. He saw the words in the marble begin to glow bright white, proof of the strain he was placing on the wards. He pressed further, placing his hands on top of the lid of the coffin and gritting his teeth as his skin began to burn.

"A little more…" He muttered, the skin on his hands and wrists blistering and peeling, the bones aching. A shrill sound filled the air as the wards began to unravel, the lid of the sarcophagus cracking vertically down the middle.

Klarion gasped as the seal finally gave way, a small blast emitting from the coffin that pushed him backwards and into a stone wall. The two halves of the lid fell away, revealing the inhabitant of the sarcophagus.

" _Mrrrow!_ " Teekl exclaimed as the demon cat leapt down and landed on his master's shoulders, purring in satisfaction as he rubbed his head under the boy's chin.

"I… I did it…" He breathed in surprise, carefully approaching the open sarcophagus and peering inside. His eyes widened at the sight that greeted him, the breath leaving his body.

"Oh Teekl…" Klarion murmured. "She's beautiful."

* * *

The House of Mystery had transported the team and Constantine to Massachusetts in seconds, but by the time they had figured out where the magical signature was coming from, their murderer was already gone.

They had been walking down the streets of Salem, earning shocked looks from the civilians that rarely saw superheroes in their city. Constantine was leading them, his crystal necklace floating in front of him and acting as a homing beacon, the crystal tugging on the chain in the direction of their culprit, glowing red with the magical residue. It eventually stopped in front of an old historical site, the original church that was built when the colony had been established.

"We should go inside and look for clues." Nightwing said as he and Aqualad began to walk up the steps.

"Wait!" Constantine hurried up after them and stood in front of the doors. "Let me check for any barriers or booby-traps."

"Heh, booby." Wally snickered, earning a smack in the back of the head from Artemis.

"Seriously? You're 19 years old!" The archer complained.

Constantine waved his hands over the door frame for a moment, before carefully opening the doors. "Oh dear."

They all peered into the church, gasping in surprise at the mess that greeted them. The colored windows above the altar were empty, the glass scattered around the altar area in little shards. The altar had been overturned and thrown backwards, and a giant hole was now carved into where it had previously sat.

"Klarion!" The original members of the young justice team exclaimed in recognition.

The Witch Boy stood in the middle of it all, his body hunched over something in his arms. He glanced up at them, startled eyes narrowing in anger as his familiar hissed at them. Then Klarion's body flickered and he disappeared with whatever he had been holding.

The crystal in Constantine's hand went limp and stopped glowing.

"Ah, shite." Brit muttered.

"What does that mean?" Zatanna asked from his side.

"It means that he has left this world." The Brit growled. "Probably hiding in another dimension."

They quietly walked down the aisle, Constantine on alert for any magical attacks. When they got to the top of the stairs and looked down into the hole, Constantine cursed under his breath while the teenagers gasped again. A sarcophagus was nestled in a hidden chamber, its lid cracked in two.

And it was empty.

"Well, I'm sufficiently whelmed." Nightwing muttered.

* * *

 **Klarion isn't very nice, is he? His attitude will definitely be canon in this one, if a little darker.**

 **Okay, I know I shouldn't be starting ANOTHER story but... but this one is good. I promise guys. And for my other readers I _promise_ that I'll be updating "Between the Devil and the Deep" really really really soon! Like really soon! Promise!**

 **Consider this part 1 of the Prelude.**


	2. Chapter 2 - The Empty Coffin

**DISCLAIMER: Still don't own anything. :(**

 **So this is part 2 of the Prelude. Enjoy~!**

* * *

 **An empty coffin**

 **Never bodes well**

They spent several more days searching for Klarion, but to no avail. Nightwing and Aqualad were still debating on whether or not they should inform the League of what had transpired while Constantine was working on spells to track down the witch boy, and Zatanna usually somewhere nearby to pester the Brit into teaching her more magic. The team was staying in the House of Mystery in the meantime so that they would teleport to wherever Klarion popped up at a moment's notice.

Constantine had explained more about himself over dinner that very night: he was born with divine magic, with the ability to see through the glamour that separated the mundane world and the divine. He had witnessed angels and demons fighting for souls, magic that could make and break worlds, monsters that even superheroes would shudder at. He was no hero, preferring casinos and bars to fame and glory. Constantine didn't tell them why he bothered to play hero, even if he found it an annoyance at best.

Batman had cashed in a favor when he asked Constantine to assist them with their case, and if he was being honest, they certainly needed it. Zatanna did not have any experience with the arcane world except for what her father had taught her before Dr. Fate had taken his body, and Klairon's magic was powerful and dangerous, especially for a bunch of teenagers with no experience fighting occult beings.

The members of the Young Justice team were milling about the House, discovering its many secrets, when the alarm sounded – a bright, ringing sound, like a high-pitched bell.

Constantine was already in the library when they all came in running, the Brit leaning over the map with his crystal in hand, circling around the map once, twice, and then stabbing into northern California, before floating up again and landing in Colombia.

"Looks like Klarion's making two stops." Kal said as Constantine began to write down the coordinates.

"We should split up the team for this one." Nightwing suggested as Kal nodded in agreement. "One group should go see what he was doing in California, while the others try to catch him in Colombia."

"I'll lead the group to Colombia." Aqualad stated. "Constantine, Wally, Connor, you're with me. Nightwing will lead Zatanna, Artemis, and M'gann."

"Right then." Constantine muttered, looking a little peeved at being ordered around by a bunch of teenagers. "I'll have the house drop you kids at Colombia first. Hopefully you can catch the little fucker."

Zatanna and M'gann gasped at his language, Kal frowned, and Artemis actually laughed out loud in agreement. The team members dispersed to grab their gear for their rooms while Constantine ordered the House to drop them off.

* * *

Nightwing and his crew touched down in San Francisco just outside the city limits. From there they had taken a cab into town, following the coordinates that Constantine had given them. It led them to a high-rise in the downtown area, overlooking the bay, a sleek, modern building that no doubt cost a small fortune to live in. They stood in front of the building, staring up at the shiny windows and well-kept balconies, ignoring the surprised looks and cellphone pictures taken by the civilians walking by (although one or two of them stopped to ask for autographs).

"So, what now?" Artemis drawled as they stared up at the complex. "Do we interrogate every person living here?"

"If we have to." Nightwing muttered.

Her mouth dropped open. "You can't be serious!"

"I could always scan the minds of everyone in the building and see if anyone has seen Klarion recently." M'gann offered.

"What about your privacy rule?" Nightwing asked her.

The Martian looked a little sheepish. "I mean, I wouldn't be diving into their deepest darkest secrets or anything. Just glancing at the surface, is all."

"Maybe we should save that for a last resort." Artemis told her, frowning at M'gann's suggestion.

Zatanna remained quiet, silently walking up to the building and slowly pacing in front of it. "I'm feeling magic here too…" She murmured, only Nightwing catching her words.

"In this building?" He asked her.

The magician nodded.

"Well, let's go in and let Zatanna lead the way." Nightwing said as he plugged one of his gadgets into the security scanner on the front door and quickly disabling the electronic security system.

They walked in and followed Zatanna up the stairs, up and up until they were at the top level. She stopped into front of the last door in the hallway, the apartment which faced the bay. Glancing at Nightwing, Zatanna lifted her hand to knock on the door, Artemis and M'gann tensing for a fight behind them. Oddly enough, the door opened before her hand touched the wood.

"Why hello." A soft voice greeted them, a beautiful woman standing with her hand on the doorknob staring at them with calm grey eyes. "I thought I sensed someone out here." Her eyes focused on Zatanna and stared at the girl long and hard.

Nightwing cleared his throat. "Ahem, excuse us, ma'am. But would you be willing to talk to us in private?"

The owner of the apartment finally seemed to notice the other superheroes, her eyes flickering over them dismissively before she dipped her head and opened the door wider for them to enter.

"You may come in." She hummed, leading them into the living room of her apartment. The place smelled like a greenhouse, planters were scattered throughout the apartment with a small forest growing on the woman's balcony. Bright and colorful flowers bloomed in the room, giving off a heady floral scent that smelled positively wonderful.

The furniture was rather modern, despite the hippy-aura of the woman. A small artist's workshop was set up in the corner of the living room across the sofa, where an easel stood empty of a painting, but the paints and brushed were lined up on the small table beside it. The walls were decorated with a mix of paintings and drawings, all of which depicted scenes of fantasy – dragons, magicians, fairies.

"Would you like something to drink?" The woman's voice interrupted their study of the room.

"No, we would not want to impose!" M'gann shook her head.

Instead of insisting that she get them something, the owner of the apartment merely shrugged and sat down in a chair across from the sofa, indicating for them to take a seat there.

"My name is Elyon." She told them, her voice soft and songlike, eyes half-lidded and her lips seemed on the cusp of a smile. "How may I help you?"

Artemis and Nightwing exchanged a look, wondering what drugs this lady was on. Nightwing spoke first, saying, "We are investigating a murder –"

"Oh how exciting!" Elyon smiled wistfully. Artemis mouthed the word 'crazy', earning a quick elbow jab from M'gann.

" -and we believe that the culprit might have stopped in your building for some reason." Nightwing continued.

Elyon raised her eyebrows at them. "And have you spoken with our security director?"

"Er, no…"

"I see." She hummed before all joviality drained from her face. "So you're just talking to me, huh?" Elyon turned to look into Zatanna's eyes. "You could sense me."

The magician startled. "I, uh…"

"You have the gift," Elyon told her, suddenly seeming much older than she looked, her eyes staring at the girl with age and wisdom. "Not many can claim to have real magic in this day and age."

"You… you have it too, don't you?" Zatanna asked her in shock.

Elyon hummed and nodded, and then suddenly snapped her fingers. They all tense at the sound of clinking coming from the kitchen, only for a tea tray to float over to them and settle itself on the coffee table.

"Great, more floating tea…" Artemis grumbled, looking very unsettled.

Elyon chuckled as she poured herself a cup. "Seen this parlor trick before, eh?"

"We're getting off topic." Nightwing interrupted as Elyon began sipping her tea. "Do you know a young man by the name of Klarion? He has pale, nearly blue skin, black eyes, and black hair. He –"

"Yes, yes, I know the boy." Elyon sighed as she put her cup down on the tray. A sad expression crossed her face, briefly, before it was concealed. "He is… lost. Full of anger."

"Well, he's wanted for murder." Artemis growled, having no pity for the boy.

Elyon shrugged. "I can't say I'm surprised. Klarion never cared much for humans."

"How do you know him? Why did he come here?" Artemis pressed, attempting to ease her frustration.

"Klarion is quite young, at least for our kind." Elyon told them, though she omitted telling them what her 'kind' was exactly. "He is full of anger and rage at the world. He wants revenge on the ones who hunted us, imprisoned us, tortured us... and worse."

Sadness returned to her eyes, her lips tilting down in a frown. "And our hunters… They are still out there. They still walk among your kind, just like any other human, except for the blood that stains their swords."

"Many fell in the war between our factions, but some never truly died. We can stave off death, you see. A simple preservation spell that imitates death... and so many were buried in that fashion." She took another sip of her tea. "So Klarion seeks to awaken them; these Dreamers of ours. And then he will seek out the hunters in revenge for all they had wrought. Klarion came to me to ask for help in this endeavor, but I refused him."

Elyon shook her head. "The war has long since ended and I am tired of fighting. That boy is chasing ghosts; our clan will never achieve its former glory."

"What… what are you, exactly?" M'gann asked, having scanned the woman with her mind and found her to be not entirely human, but her mental walls were too strong for the Martian to penetrate without doing harm.

"A little more and a little less than human." Elyon chuckled. "We may have been human once, but long ago, magic caused us to evolve into something else. We were stronger, faster, and lived longer. The humans grew to fear us and sought to eliminate us long ago. I am, along with Klarion, one of the very few which survive to this day."

"You're a witch, aren't you?" Zatanna suddenly exclaimed in awe, staring at Elyon in wonder. "Like the witches of old? A _true_ witch!"

Elyon merely sent her an amused look.

"Do you know where Klarion is headed next?" Nightwing asked.

"He will go to wherever he can find them. The Dreamers, I mean." Elyon's expression became tranquil once more as she poured herself another cup of tea.

The Young Justice members glanced at each other with equally bewildered expressions, while Zatanna seemed completely enthralled by Elyon's words. A moment of silence passed, with Elyon calmly sipping her tea as the heroes mulled over the information they had obtained.

"Well, thanks for your help." Nightwing sighed as he stood to leave, the others standing as well. "But we still need to stop Klarion. Unless, you can help us, somehow?"

Elyon looked up into his face and, despite her youthful appearance, seemed to age a hundred years in those few seconds. "I am tired of fighting, my dear. But, I can give you some advice: look to the Dreamers."

"In many ways, they were still children when they died." Elyon sighed as she closed her eyes, shoulders slumping. "Not all of them are evil, but many of them have learned the hard way just what horrors humanity is capable of. They may choose vengeance, or they may not. But I urge you to give them all a chance at life. A _real_ life."

* * *

The rainforest was honestly an awful place. At least, in the opinion of the Young Justice members (plus Constantine) that were currently trudging knee-deep in mud as rain poured incessantly down on them. Even Aqualad looked unhappy with their current environment, and the boy was literally _born_ in water.

The House had teleported the team to the outskirts of the Amazon rainforest, then disappeared without warning to drop off the other half of their team. Constantine had muttered a rather rude word describing the sentient building before he pulled out his crystal on a chain and they set off. Once again it was glowing red and tugging at the end of its leash as they follow in the direction it was pointing.

Constantine wasn't too surprised when they found themselves in an abandoned village that looked to have been long forgotten by the outside world. He would guess that the place had been abandoned for at least a century at this point, most of the buildings collapsed and decayed, only the stone foundations remaining. The only walls that remained were those of the small church that sat at the end of what was once the main street, green moss and vines crawling up the sides as if the forest was seeking to devour the last evidence of humanity in this place.

"He's in the church." Constantine told them.

"Why is it always a church?" Kid Flash grumbled. "And creepy ones at that!"

"Cause that's where people put their dead when they want to hide the bodies." Constantine stated dryly, Wally shivering at his words.

"Still creepy." The speedster muttered.

Constantine gave a bitter smirk. "Necromancy usually is."

"Both of you, hush." Aqualad ordered them. "We can't let Klarion get away this time."

The group fell silent as they spread out and approached the building from all sides. Superboy and Kid Flash were going to remain outside incase Klarion tried to flee, while Aqualad and Constantine would be the first inside.

Constantine hid the crystal under his shirt and pulled on his gloves as they approached the dilapidated church, Aqualad reaching for his weapons as they crept into the open entrance, the door long since rotted away. Everything inside was dark, especially with the rainclouds above them blocking any hope for the sun. Water dripped steadily from the disintegrating rafters, and in one section of the church, the roof had totally collapsed.

They could see Klarion at the end of the church, once again in the altar area, using an energy beam to blast apart the stone floor. He was nearly done, from what they could see. Aqualad and Constantine exchanged glances before they began to sneak up on the boy.

" _Mmmmrow!_ " The shrill cry of a cat alerted Klarion to their presence, Aqualad glancing in shock at the animal that had been hiding in the shadows where he had been walking. Constantine cursed as Klarion's head shot up and made eye contact with them.

"You again?!" Klarion exclaimed in a tone of both annoyance and anger.

His familiar scampered away from Aqualad and towards Klarion as he began to shoot magical bolts at them. The two heroes dodged and attempted to rush the boy, only to be sent flying back with a magical forcefield of some kind.

"Alright then…" Constantine growled as he and Aqualad got to their feet. "Time to fight magic with magic!"

When the witch boy sent another spell at them Constantine held up his hand and a diagram appeared in the air, glowing dark blue. The spell collided with the diagram and then disappeared. Klarion paused for a moment at the sight, before he tilted his head back and let out a bark of laughter.

"Well, look at that!" He snickered. "Didn't know there was any magic left in the human race!"

Seemingly excited by this new turn of events, Klarion attacked Constantine with renewed vigor, the two exchanging colorful blasts of magic and chanting spells to counter each other. Constantine began to lead Klarion away from the altar area, eventually knocking the boy out of the church with a powerful stunning spell.

As Klarion went flying through the crumbling wall of the church, Constantine quickly turned to Aqualad yelling, "Get to the altar!"

Then the Brit jump out of the building and after Klarion, who was recovering from his attack and currently fighting off Connor and Wally, who had been waiting for him outside. Away from his familiar, Klarion was vulnerable to Constantine's counter curses, which the Brit took full advantage of, slowly wearing down the boy's protective wards while Superboy and Kid Flash kept him occupied.

Aqualad turned his attention away from the fight and began to climb over the rubble to where Klarion had carved a hole in the ground. There was a sarcophagus buried here as well, made of dirty white marble inscribed with letters and shapes he did not understand. The lid was nearly split in half, another foot or so and Klarion would have opened the coffin completely.

At first, Aqualad wasn't sure what to do. Bury it again? Destroy the body so that Klarion couldn't use it anymore? Kal approached the sarcophagus and hesitantly looked inside of it, only to freeze at the sight that greeted him.

Black hair.

Tan skin.

And her face… was young. The occupant of the sarcophagus looked completely untouched by time, her skin still youthful, and aside from the smudges of dirt on her face and hands, there was no sign of decay at all. If he didn't know any better, the girl was merely sleeping.

"Impossible…" Kal murmured as he gripped the inside edges of the coffin's lid and pulled them apart, tossing both slabs on the ground. He was about to reach in and touch the girl when –

" _Hisss!_ " Klarion's familiar leapt down from the rubble and attacked Aqualad, sinking his claws into the boy's arms and hissing loudly.

The cat's eyes were glowing red and glared at him with uncanny intelligence. Aqualad managed to rip the animal off of him and toss him away, only for the demonic cat to land on the rim of the sarcophagus and bristle at him, coiled and ready to attack again.

"Hey Kal, we got him!" Wally's voice interrupted Kaldur's concentration as the other boys came in with an unconscious Klarion slung over Superboy's shoulder.

The familiar let out a snarl at the sight of his master defeated.

"Dang, you getting beaten by a cat?" Kid Flash chuckled.

"That is no ordinary cat, Kid Flash." Constantine said as he came to stand beside Kal. "It's a demonic entity in the form of a cat."

The speedster rolled his eyes while Superboy eyed the creature warily.

" **Foolish humans."**

They all jumped when the cat began to _speak_ , Wally's mouth falling open while Constantine narrowed his eyes in calculation.

" **You cannot stop this. The Dreamers shall be awakened!"**

And with that, the cat disappeared into the coffin, only for a bright light to suddenly flash from within. Then the familiar leapt out, turning to give them a smug look as the earth began to shake.

"Wha –"

"No!" Constantine leapt forward towards the sarcophagus, but then it seemed to explode from the inside, sending them all flying out of the hole and into the piles of rock and rubbish that was all that remained of the church.

The heroes scrambled to their feet, staring as the girl's body began to float up into the air, glowing with purple magic, the fraying remnants of a white dress flaring around her. Superboy had dropped Klarion during his fall, and the demonic cat quickly weaved through their feet, darting towards his master and teleporting away with him the moment they touched.

"Dammit! We lost him!" Connor growled.

"Uh, I think we should be more concerned with glowy, floating girl over here." Kid Flash joked nervously.

Her eyes snapped open, glowing with purple light, staring down at them for a brief moment -

There was a scream.

A blast of magic.

They were under attack.


	3. Chapter 3 - Wake Up Call

**Still don't own anything...**

* * *

 **Waking up**

 **On the wrong side**

 **Of everything**

" _In your wickedness-"_

 _A priest in pure white robes intoned with a deep, seemingly regretful voice as he stood at the back of the room, watching as two women – girls really – were dragged towards their doom._

" _Ye consorted with the devil-"_

 _She kicked and struggled against the chains that bound her, the metal cutting into her wrists and ankles until they bled._

" _Surrendered thy humanity-"_

 _Her sister was similarly restrained, two great burly men on either side of the women, large hands clamped on their shoulders hard enough to bruise, knives pressed to their necks and their ribs, as if it would deter them from struggling._

" _Surrendered thy soul!"_

 _The oldest went first, dragged up to the altar where a man with an axe awaited._

" _Allowed evil to take root in thine heart-"_

 _Her sister snarled and managed to lash out at the men that held her down, swinging her legs up and planting her feet directly in his face. There was an audible crack as his nose broke. The thug reeled back in pain, before he growled backhanded her sister in the face, making her hiss._

" _Whispered corruption in the ears of Man-"_

 _She gasped out her sister's name, yanking forward as if to help, but the men beside her hauled her back, pressing their knives against her torso until blood was drawn. She did not heed them._

" _But no more! Ye are hereby banished to the depths of Hell!"_

 _They forced her sister down on her knees before the altar, and the dead figurine on the cross above had never seemed so appropriate. The man with the axe raised his weapon above his head._

" _May the fires of Inferno cleanse your damned souls!"_

 _The sympathetic expression on the priest's face morphed into a victorious smirk, the man lazily making the sign of the cross as he completed his ceremony._

" _And_ _God... may he have mercy on you."_

 _She screamed until her throat felt raw as the axe swung down and her sister's head went rolling. Tears burned as they rolled down her cheeks. She struggled against her captors with renewed vigor, only for someone to stab their dagger into her side, and another to slam a fist into her solar plexus, forcing the air from her lungs and she registered the pain._

 _They began to drag her forward, prayers and pleas falling fruitlessly from her lips as they threw her down next to the body of her sister. The axe went up again, still slick with fresh blood. The last thing she saw was her sister's head, rolling down the steps of the altar, eyes open in shock, face speckled with blood._

 _The axe swung down._

 _She screamed._

 _Everything exploded._

 _The town was wiped out in an instant, her magic bursting forth in her terror and rage, uncontrolled and wild magic sweeping through the land, called forth in her desperation. The men were thrown back, the axe clattering to the ground. The roof of the church was ripped away as she began to float upwards, magic leaking from her eyes, ears, and nose, burning and burning and burning uncontrollably._

 _She screamed and cried and snarled in anger, fear, sorrow, all mixing together and reflected in the chaotic storm of mana around her, her power lashing out and scalding anything it touched. The town was going up in flames around her and people were running, screaming, praying, and all she could do was think about the ache in her chest, her sister's body, and she wanted them all to pay._

 _She wasn't sure what happened after that._

 _When she regained control of herself, the town was in ruins. No one was left, not even their bodies. The church, the only building made of stone, was all that remained, ironically. She felt weak… so weak… as if every ounce of energy had been drained and wrung from her body. She was still bleeding from where the man had stabbed her, but she barely registered the pain._

 _She didn't feel anything, actually._

 _Crawling back into the church, she avoided looking at the blackened bodies of her captors as she stumbled down the aisle and stopped just before the altar area. Body shaking, hands trembling, she picked up her sister's head, turning it over in her hands to stare into the dead eyes and terrified expression, mouth still open, blood on the tongue._

 _She fell to her knees, weeping as she cradles the head in her lap, curling herself around it and sobbing until they faded to soft whimpers. She was alone now._

 _Eventually a familiar magical signature flared to life behind her, a hand resting on her shoulder._

" _Sleep, child." The kindly voice whispered, and then there was only darkness._

 _Blissful darkness._

* * *

" _HOMICIDÆ! PARRICIDUS! SORDEZZA!"_

Nightwing and his group teleported to the others' location using the League zeta tubes just in time to see a strange glowing girl scream and attack Aqualad and Constantine, launching herself towards them with her fingers curled like claws, teeth bared.

Her arms shot out and released blasts of purple energy which slammed into the two young men before they could blink. Aqualad and Constantine hit the walls behind them, further destroying the building around them. Then they felt themselves being picked up by an invisible force, and as the girl made a swiping motion, they went sailing across the clearing, landing hard in the trees.

Superboy let out a roar and charged the girl like an angry bull, but to all their astonishment, she leapt over his shoulder, grabbing his face in the process and pushing him over, slamming the back of his head into the ground. She stood over the dazed Superboy, staring down at him with an unreadable expression.

" _Qui hon et_?" She murmured, " _Et non homini_ …"

Kid Flash attempted to rush her from behind, but then the world seemed to stutter for a moment, as if someone had pressed paused and then play again, and she was gone. The speedster slowed down and looked around in confusion, only for her to materialize behind him and slam her foot into his back, sending him flying forward. A yell behind her alerted her to Superboy charging at her again, his super speed allowing him to close in on her before she could turn to face him.

Superboy's fist connected with her face, but in that second her body seemed to disintegrate, bursting into indescribable black flecks which flew into his face and coalesced in the air behind him. Her arm formed first, extended towards the boy as magic glowed at her fingertips, a diagram flickering into existence beneath his feet even as the rest of her body continued to reform. Superboy turned to hit her again, but the lines of the diagram suddenly lit up and the ground sank inwards, swallowing him whole.

"No! Connor!" Miss Martian screamed as she flew forward.

"M'gann, wait!" Nightwing ordered, but she was already gone.

The girl spun around and sent a wave of energy towards Miss Martian, but was caught off guard by another attack from Kid Flash, who managed to land a punch on her ribs and sent her careening into the ground. The girl grunted as she landed and rolled up into a crouch, eyes narrowed at Kid Flash, who pressed forward and continued to attack her.

The world stuttered again as he came at her, reality warping, and before Wally could register what was happening, she was meeting him fist for fist, easily blocking his attacks and keeping him on the defensive.

"She's using some serious magic." Zatanna spoke softly, in awe. "It's all over her. She must be using her mana to enhance her physical abilities! Amazing!"

"Yeah, not when she's kicking our asses!" Artemis growled, knocking an arrow.

"Aqualad, this is Nightwing! Do you read?" Nightwing hurriedly called over their comms link, holding up a hand to stall Artemis from joining the fray.

"Y-Yeah." The Atlantean answered, "I'm here. A little bruised, though."

"Who is this chick?" Nightwing asked in confusion. "What happened to Klarion?"

"Klarion got away." Kal answered with a grunt, probably injured when he fell. "The girl was buried here, and he managed to resurrect her before he left."

"Zombies, seriously?" Artemis growled from beside Nightwing, having been listening in on their conversation. She had her bow drawn, keeping it aimed at where the girl was fighting Kid Flash, but the two fighters were moving too fast for Artemis to get a hit in without endangering Wally.

"I don't think so." Constantine's voice could be vaguely heard on Aqualad's link. "Her body wasn't deteriorated at all, and I sensed no necromancy from Klarion."

"Then what is she?" Aqualad asked the question they were all thinking.

"Must be one of those 'Dreamers' Elyon was talking about." Zatanna said, much to the confusion of Aqualad and Constantine.

There was a shout, and they all looked up to see Kid Flash being thrown backwards by the girl in question, landing hard on the ground and not getting up. Miss Martian was floating above them, her hands on her temples, no doubt attacking the girl's mind.

" _Non homini quosi_." The girl stared up at the green woman in confusion, only to hiss and grab her head.

 _Go to sleep. Stop fighting. Sleep._ M'gann tried to tell the girl, sending waves of calming energy through the stranger's mind, struggling against the mental walls that were going up to keep her out.

 _Suffit!_ The girl screamed back as she fought the Martian's mental onslaught. M'gann gasped as a sharp pain lanced through her skull, her focus slipping as the stranger turned her rage on her, clawing through her mind, searching for her weaknesses. Miss Martian screamed as the girl conjured images of fire, burning hot and fast, so real she could feel her skin blistering and smell burning flesh.

"I think now is the best chance to attack!" Artemis exclaimed, the others nodding in agreement, leaping into the clearing and attacking the strange girl just as Miss Martian began screaming and fell to the ground. Constantine darted around the clearing to join Zatanna off to the side as they began theorizing about the girl's powers and how to stop her.

"Zatanna, get the unconscious out of there!" Nightwing ordered as he attacked the girl. The magician nodded and began chanting, teleporting their fallen comrades away from the line of fire.

Artemis sent a volley of arrows at the girl, which she easily dodged by jumping and flipping out of the way like a trained acrobat. She landed and turned just in time to dodge a swipe from Nightwing's escrima sticks, avoiding their electrically charged tips as she fell back into a bridge, pushing off her feet to balance on her hands as she kicked at Nightwing and spun away, landing back on her feet.

Only for Aqualad to attack with his water-bearers, a whip of water slamming down where she was standing just a moment before she dodged, cracking the earth below. She weaved her way through his attacks, while simultaneously dodging more arrows courtesy of Artemis.

"Uh, guys?" Artemis pants as she reloaded her bow. "This chick isn't slowing down! Someone knock her out or something!"

"We're… trying…" Aqualad muttered, hard-pressed to keep up with the girl who was inching closer and closer to him even as he attempted to use his water-bearers to keep her back. But she was quick, constantly moving, weaving between his attacks like it was rehearsed.

And then she was in front of him, her fingers wrapping around his wrists in an iron grip as she hissed, " _Glacio!_ " and Aqualad gasped as he felt his limbs go numb and ice encased his arms, freezing the tattoos on his arms that allowed him to control the water-bearers. His weapons felt to the ground, becoming plain water which was soaked up by the soil.

" _Atalant cretus_?" She murmured, sounding confused.

Kaldur stared at his arms in shock, making eye contact with the girl only a moment before she seemed to remember that they were in the middle of a fight, and slammed a side-kick into his chest that sent him soaring.

"Constantine, Zatanna, did you catch what she said to Aqualad?" Nightwing asked as he came to Kal's defense before the girl could continue pulverizing him. He was quite impressed by the girl's martial skills. Not only could she keep up with Wally and his superspeed, but she was easily matching Dick's skill in combat, and he was a master in several art forms.

"She's speaking Latin!" Zatanna exclaimed, sounding both shocked and excited. "Or, well, something similar to it..."

"I'm fluent in Latin!" Constantine's muffled voice spoke into Zatanna's link. "If I could get close enough, I could try to talk her down. If she doesn't kill me first."

"That's a tall order." Nightwing grunted as he blocked a particularly hard hit from the girl and felt his bones bruising.

"Nightwing, move!" Artemis' voice yelled across the comms link just as she sent a stunner flying towards them. He leapt out of the way as the electric arrow sped past, only for the girl to catch it by the shaft and gritting her teeth against the current, teleported behind Nightwing and stabbed it into his shoulder.

Artemis let out a nasty curse as Nightwing fell to his knees, one hand over his shoulder as he attempted to grab ahold of her arrow and pull it out. She went to reload her bow again, this time with something stronger, only to hear a _whoosh_ of movement behind her. Artemis spun around, yelping in surprise to see that the strange girl had teleported behind her.

"What the –" Before she even had the chance to react the girl touched her forehead, fingers glowing for a moment, before Artemis felt her eyes close and she passed out.

"Artemis!" Nightwing yelled in a worried tone as he heard the sound of Artemis hitting the ground over his earpiece. He ran over to Aqualad, who was struggling to stand with both arms frozen, and helped the Atlantean knock the ice off of his limbs, before the two of them ran over to where their enemy was approaching Zatanna and Constantine.

"Shite." The Brit muttered as the raging, glowing girl began to walk towards them. "I'm good in a fight, but if she can beat Nightwing, I dun stand a chance!"

"I think she's just confused." Zatanna protested, though her voice was nervous.

They both jumped as the girl flickered out of existence, only for her body to materialize right in front of them.

"Confused and trying to kill us!" Constantine snapped as he grabbed ahold of the younger magician and dragged her out of the way of a blast of magical energy.

" _Subsisto!_ " He yelled, holding up his arms, a glowing diagram appearing in the air between them and shielding them from her attacks, absorbing the mana in her blasts.

The girl paused at the display of magic, confusion flitting across her features. " _Maleficar?_ "

" _Ita._ " Constantine nodded in the affirmative, though he did not lower his shields. He felt Zatanna get to her feet behind him, coming to stand next to him.

" _E… tu non asus la ecclesia?_ " She asked him warily, eyeing Zatanna curiously.

Constantine let out a bark of laughter. "I should hope not! _Non!_ "

He caught a glimpse of Aqualad and Nightwing sneaking up on the girl and quickly shook his head, wordlessly telling them to stay back. The girl hesitated, and then slowly let her magic dissipate. To Constantine, it felt like a chill in the air that was suddenly warm again.

" _Qui es?"_ She asked him, eyes darting to the side, clearly sensing the presence of Aqualad and Nightwing, but refrained from acknowledging them.

"Constantine." He introduced himself. " _Et tu?"_

She hesitated in revealing her name, finally turning to glance in the direction of Aqualad and Nightwing.

" _Pacem_." He assured her, hoping that she did not attack again. " _Sint amici_."

The girl eyed the other two men for a moment before she turned back to Constantine. "" _L'mia_ _nomen e Lyra, heres deu J'anae,_ _dahtre deu la famlia Perigee_."

Now Constantine lowered his shields, relaxing his stance and bowing his head to her politely.

"Nice to meet you, Lyra."

* * *

Latin translations:

" _H_ _OMICIDÆ! PARRICIDUS! SORDEZZA_ _!"_ – Murderers! Traitors! Filth!

" _Qui hon et_? _Et non homini_ …" – What is this? It is not human…

" _Non homini quosi."_ – Not human either.

 _Suffit!_ – Enough! Begone!

" _Glacio!"_ – Freeze!

" _Atalant cretus_?" – A creature of Atlantis?

" _Subsisto!"_ – Stop!

" _Maleficar?_ " – Sorcerer, magician?

" _Ita._ " – Yes.

" _E… tu non asus la ecclesia_ _?_ " – And… you are not with the church?

" _Qui es?"_ – Who are you?

" _Et tu?"_ – And you?

" _Pacem. Sint amici."_ – Peace. They are friends.

" _L'mia_ _nomen e Lyra, heres deu J'anae,_ _dahtre deu la famlia Perigee_." – My name is Lyra, heir to J'anae, daughter of the Perigee family

* * *

 **The Latin in this story will be completely bastardized. The language of the Maleficar is a precursor to Latin, so it won't be exactly the same, though awfully similar.**

 **Yeah, I know this character is overpowered, but hey, she's got a couple hundred years of experience, so sue me... actually don't. Don't sue me. I'm a broke college kid.**

 **Sorry Zatanna didn't fight much in this one. She's younger in this version of DC Earth so I'm guessing that she's still learning magic and would be quite awestruck by more powerful magicians. Yes, her growth is a major part of this story.**

 **Also, it's really hard to write a battle scene with, like, eight people.**

 **Constantine is one of my favorite antiheroes (after Deadpool). I made him older, around 24-ish so that he's be more experienced and help our younger heroes navigate the supernatural.**


	4. Chapter 4 - Introductions and a Reunion

**Whoo! Fourth update in a row! I'm on a roll!**

 **More OC stuff in this chapter. Less in the next. Plus Constantine the sass-master.**

 _"Speaking in another language"_

 **STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES.**

* * *

 **The First**

 **But not the Last**

There was an awkward silence as they all stared at the girl, now known as Lyra. She looked to be from the Mediterranean with olive-tan skin, an oval face, sharp bone structure, and black curly hair that fell to her waist. Her wide eyes were plain brown, but Constantine noticed that they seemed to flicker with gold when she used magic. She was still in the dress she had been buried in, tattered and fraying and the edges, a couple of holes, and stained with dirt and old blood.

She was still tense and ready to fight, noticeably twitchy with Aqualad and Nightwing in the bushes behind her.

"Boys, come on out." Constantine ordered them. "We don't need to set her off again."

The bushes rustled as Aqualad and Nightwing stood up, Lyra carefully turning around to watch them sharply as they walked past her and joined Constantine and Zatanna. There was another moment of silence as they Lyra and the heroes continued to study each other.

Finally, she spoke again. " _Che_ _centuria est? Che lingua vos decim?"_

"Uh, anyone wanna translate?" Kaldur muttered.

"Sdorw s'aryL etalsnart." Zatanna whispered under breath.

Lyra seemed to sense her magic, eyes rising up in surprise when she felt her lips tingle. She turned to Zatanna with her eyes narrowed, hackles rising. " _What did you do?"_

Her words were still in another language, but to Zatanna, Nightwing, and Aqualad her words sounded like English.

" _A simple translation spell, my dear."_ Constantine explained to Lyra, his words also being translated for the heroes. _"Now, you said your family name was Perigee. Like the witches of old?"_

Lyra merely gave him a sly look. " _You are barely human yourself, sorcerer. And quite powerful, for a mortal."_

She eyed the three heroes suspiciously, Zatanna in particular. Then she turned her attention back to Constantine. " _I shall ask again: What century is this? What language dost thou speak?"_

" _We are in century twenty-one_." Constantine answered her. _"We speak the modern English."_

" _One and twenty?!"_ Lyra exclaimed. _"How long have I slept?!"_

" _Uh… what year did you, um, go to sleep?"_ Constantine asked her, hoping not to offend her, knowing she probably didn't 'go to sleep' the peaceful way, if her violent awakening was anything to go by.

A dark look crossed the girl's face. _"I do not remember."_ She answered, though Constantine had the feeling she simply did not want to remember. " _You say you speak the English? It does not sound like the English I know. Alas, language changes in time. Pray tell, why did thee come here? How did thou find my resting place?"_

" _We were chasing another like you, who came here to awaken you before he disappeared. A boy."_ Constantine told her.

" _A boy?_ " She looked surprised before it turned to suspicion. " _Why were you chasing him?"_

" _It was no witch hunt, I assure you,"_ Constantine told her placatingly. If her questions about the church were any indication, no doubt she had been a victim of a witch hunt herself. History was not kind to magical children. _"He is wanted for murder."_

" _Murder? Of humans?"_ Her expression wavered. " _Troubling. But I'm afraid I do not know this boy, or why he sought to awaken me."_

They heard a sigh of frustration from Nightwing and Aqualad. The Witch Boy had escaped, and they were no closer to figuring out what he wanted, or where he would go next.

Lyra's attention drifted away from them to stare at the unconscious bodies of the rest of the Young Justice team, which Zatanna had teleported away from the battlefield to where they stood now, off to the side. Kid Flash, Artemis, and Miss Martian were leaning against the trees, a little roughed up but asleep.

" _My apologies for attacking on sight._ " Lyra told them as she waved her hands in their direction, fingers glowing purple as specks of light drifted from her fingertips towards the unconscious members of the team, sinking into their skin and healing their wounds. She released the mental hold she had on the Martian, allowing the alien to wake up.

Miss Martian shot up with a loud gasp, sucking in air in a panicked state, eyes darting wildly around her as she struggled to let go of the nightmare Lyra had trapped her in. She was shaking, running her hands across her arms and legs to reassure herself that she was not burning. Zatanna rushed over to M'gann, whispering comforting words as she calmed the Martian down. Kaldur and Nightwing sent Lyra a dark glare, clearly unhappy with how she had dealt with the Miss Martian.

"Bring back Superboy." Nightwing commanded, suddenly remembering that Connor had been swallowed by the earth. Lyra stared at him for a second, before she waved her hands around her ears, no doubt her own translation spell for their English.

" _You mean the raging bull?"_ Lyra raised her eyebrows when his words were understood.

The two leaders glared harder.

Lyra merely shrugged and nodded, making vague motions with her hands and then snapping her fingers. A diagram appeared on the ground, glowing, before the earth opened up like a warp hole and spit out an unconscious Kryptonian.

" _He is still alive, surprisingly."_ Lyra commented in an unapologetic tone. _"He has suffocated. But you may be able to revive him."_

" _We are grateful for your mercy."_ Constantine drawled, mockery dripping from his words.

Lyra turned to him with an amused look. _"I see dry wit is alive and well in this age."_

Constantine swept his arm in front of him and gave an exaggerated bow. A pair of groans drew their attention back to the recovering Young Justice members, Artemis and Kid Flash waking up. Artemis was instantly alert, grabbing her bow and checking to make sure all of her weapons were still on her. Then she turned to the speedster, lightly smacking his cheek to get him to wake up faster.

"Arty… stop…" Wally groaned. "Five more minutes…"

"We're in the middle of a mission, idiot!" Artemis hissed, purposefully poking a nasty bruise on his cheek (courtesy of Lyra) and making the boy jolt into a sitting position.

"Ow! That hurt –" Kid Flash trailed off as his eyes fell on Lyra, calmly standing in front of Constantine. "Uh… did we get her?"

"We got her to stop, if that's what you mean." Constantine answered him.

Artemis studied Lyra suspiciously before she got to her feet and helped her boyfriend up as well. "Well, as long as she's not kicking our butts…"

" _I was acting on instinct._ " Lyra informed them, surprisingly the two newly awakened Young Justice members with her strangely accented English (hey, even translation spells aren't perfect). _"I assumed I was under attack."_

"Er… why?" Kid Flash asked, making Constantine shake his head and put a hand to his face.

Lyra lifted a brow at him. _"From whence I come from, people with powers are burned at the stake... Or beheaded."_

Constantine noticed Lyra winced at that remark, and made a mental note _not_ to ask about it. Wally grimaced, realizing his rather insensitive remark while Artemis shook her head at him. Honestly, the boy was a certified genius, but he was distinctly lacking in tact.

Meanwhile, Zatanna had been getting control of Miss Martian while Aqualad went to wake up Superboy, essentially whacking the Kryptonian really hard in the chest and making him spit out the mud clogging his throat and nose.

"Fire… everything was burning…" M'gann whispered as she continued to rub her arms, Zatanna making calming shushing noises to soothe her. "I was locked in a room of fire and I couldn't get out! There were others… I couldn't see their faces, but I could smell them burning! The fire was eating away at them, their skin was melting off, bodies blackening –!"

"M'gann!" Zatanna grabbed her wrists and shook her, forcing the Martian to meet her gaze. "It's over! It was just an illusion!"

Miss Martian stared into her friend's face for a long moment before she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She felt a soothing presence in her mind, waves of calm lulling her into a state of relaxation. She almost let her guard down, her gaze wandering over her recovering team, before she made eye contact with Lyra, and instantly her mental shields went up, pushing out the calming presence.

"Get out of my head!" M'gann snapped at the girl next to Constantine.

Lyra shrugged, unoffended. It was just a calming spell. She just wasn't particularly sorry about the nightmare she had trapped the Martian in, she was only defending herself after all. Besides, the girl had invaded her mind first, so now she had learned her lesson. She was only trying to calm the green girl down so that she'd stop babbling on (it was getting annoying).

"So…" Nightwing began, turning his attention back to Lyra now that his team was back on their feet and everyone was relatively unharmed. "What do we do with you?"

Lyra narrowed her eyes. " _I am not beholden to anyone, young man."_

"You have powers. You could have easily defeated us." Nightwing pointed out. "We can't just let you go unchecked. We need your word that you will not attack any humans."

Lyra raised an eyebrow at him in a condescending expression. _"And if I refuse?"_

"Then we take you in to the League." Nightwing stated, the other members of the Young Justice team tensing for another round.

Constantine shook his head, muttering about 'daft Yanks' under his breaths. Hadn't she already kicked their arses? Why was Nightwing trying to piss the sorceress off _again_?

" _Fool."_ Lyra snorted. _"No man may command me."_

She glanced at Constantine, eyeing him curiously before she turned and began to calmly walk away. Just as Nightwing was about to protest and grab her shoulder, the world stuttered and her body burst into shreds of black which disintegrated before they touched the ground.

"Good going, asshat." Constantine growled as he turned to glare at Batman's kid over his shoulder. "Ya bloody well done it now! We got an ancient witch on the loose and no way to track her! Not to mention she's alone in a new world with no idea what's up or down! What if she panics and loses control of her powers? She could wipe out a whole town before any of you Leaguers get there!"

Nightwing actually looked a little sheepish at that.

"Can't you track her, like you did Klarion?" Zatanna asked him.

Constantine reluctantly removed his glare from Nightwing as he glanced at the spot Lyra had been standing. "I dunno. She's far more advanced than Klarion was in magic. Her signature is all over this place, but no doubt she can hide from a simple tracking spell like the one I used on Klarion. She's much stronger than him. You kids are lucky she didn't kill you."

"You think she's that powerful?" Aqualad asked him.

Constantine eyed the teenagers. "You kids didn't feel what I felt. Klarion is a _child_ , believe it or not. Lyra is a full-grown witch. She has centuries of experience."

"Centuries?" Zatanna whispered. "How old is she?"

Constantine shrugged. "It's impossible to tell with witches. Lyra isn't ancient, but she is certainly older than Klarion by a few centuries, give or take."

"Wow." Artemis blinked. "She needs to share her skin regimen with me."

Constantine sighed as he summoned the House. And then they were off again.

* * *

 **Note: the witches are speaking in their own language to each other**

Lyra did not actually teleport far from the heroes. She dared not, for she no longer knew the land, or this world for that matter. She didn't want to materialize and have half her body stuck in a wall, or something equally embarrassing. She landed on the branch of a large tree, still slick with the ever-present rain. It seemed _La Amazonia_ had not changed, at least.

Goddess, she was a mess.

Now that she was out of their sight, she felt weakness set in. She had already drained herself completely of magic when she had fallen into _Dium Somnium_. The long dream had restored some of her reserves, but she was still weak, and she had gone centuries without replenishing herself of magic.

Lyra held up her hand, fingers twitching and arm trembling. She felt faint. She was already absorbing magic from the land around her - the Amazon had always been full of it. But she couldn't rest yet. _Not here._

The sorceress closed her eyes and relaxed her body against the tree trunk, expanding her awareness to encompass the forest, the continent, and further on, until she felt her mind touch something – some _one_ – familiar.

The person jolted in surprise, then responded with a curious poke. Lyra smiled and opened her mind up to the other person, identifying herself. A flood of recognition and surprise flooded through the other mind.

Lyra latched onto their location and gathered her mana around her, folding the space between them and – _Pop!_

She opened her eyes to find herself in a small, strange living space, with a padded bench, glowing lights that were not of flame, and plants that did not grow from the earth.

"L-Lyra?!" A shocked voice came from behind her, soft, choked with emotion.

She turned and felt her chest ache at the familiar sight of pale blonde hair and bright grey eyes, a round face with soft cheekbones, a tentative smile. "Elyon…"

Elyon let out a sob of happiness as she launched herself forward, grabbing Lyra by the shoulders and yanking her into a hug that nearly cracked her ribs. Just as suddenly she pulled back and held the other witch as arms-length, eyeing her up and down and frowning at her appearance.

"You are hurt!" Elyon exclaimed picking up her hands and eyeing the scratches and bruises on her arms.

"A small fight, nothing serious." Lyra dismissed her worry. "Do not fret. I hardly used any magic."

"But you used magic nonetheless!" Elyon scolded her. "And after awakening from the Dream! Don't you know a Dreamer needs to recuperate before they fight again?"

"I panicked…" Lyra muttered as Elyon kept ahold of her hand and pulled her into what seemed like a kitchen – a very metallic kitchen. Elyon rummaged through the cabinets and pulled out a box, opening it up to reveal medical supplies, some tools which Lyra recognized, others which she did not.

Elyon cleaned and dressed her wounds, ordering her with a disgusted voice to take off and throw her 'rags' into the rubbish bin, practically yanking the dress off of her body. Then she studied the scars on Lyra's body, borne from centuries of war, the hole on her side where the soldier had stabbed her just before she went into _Dium Somnium_ starting to leak blood again without the stasis spell to keep the wound closed.

When the long dream preserved a body, it merely stops time around the body. The wounds that Lyra had sustained just before her stasis were likewise preserved, as fresh as the day she received them upon her awakening.

Elyon clicked her tongue in displeasure, her magic flickering angrily around them for a moment as she looked upon the injuries Lyra's captors had inflicted. She quickly regained control, knowing that those men were long dead, but she still couldn't help but frown at the memory of how harshly the humans had treated their kind.

Pulling out a needle and thread from her first aid kit, Elyon began to sew up Lyra's wound, muttering words of healing as she did so. The needle glowed a pale green, particles of magic seeping into the wound and easing the pain that Lyra had forgotten was there until it went away. Meanwhile, the other witch was busy studying the apartment, noting the different architecture and standard of living for humans these days. No more living is wooden shacks and sloughing through mud. That was a nice change.

"Why are you always being impaled?" Elyon asked in a lightly amused voice as she pulled away and began packing up the medical supplies.

Lyra huffed as she looked down at her naked body. Aside from the freshly stitched wound on her left side, just below her stomach, she had several other short but deep scars on her – one just below her rib cage on the right, another between the ribs on her left side where the dagger had just barely nicked her heart. Then there was a scar that ran across her chest, an ugly, curved thing that stretched from the left side of her collarbone, between her breasts, and ending just right of her belly-button.

Her back was even worse, but those were stories for another day.

"Guess I'm just a very stab-able person." Was her snarky reply.

"With a tongue like that, I have no doubt." Elyon chuckled as she picked up the first aid kit and put it back in the cupboard. She turned around and paused in front of Lyra with a wide smile, showing an unusual amount of emotion as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm glad you're back, my little _pardus_."

Lyra's expression became panicked and she awkwardly patted Elyon's shoulder as she gave her a strained smile. "Er…. Thanks…"

Elyone chuckled. "Still emotionally stunted, I see."

"Just give me some damn clothes." Lyra muttered. "I'm getting cold."

Elyon let out a bark of laughter as she led the other witch down the hall to where the bedrooms were.

* * *

"BLAST AND DAMNATION!"

Klarion snarled as he waved his arms wildly, sending blasts of crackling magic every which way, destroying the empty warehouse he was in. Wooden crates caught fire, metal melted, everything was crashing and burning around him, reflecting his own thoughts.

"Those damn heroes! Who do they think they are interrupting my rituals?!" His voice rose higher and higher as he continued to let off steam. Teekl was curled around his shoulder, meowing loudly in agreement. "Can you believe these mortals?! How dare they ruin my plans! _How dare they?!_ "

The warehouse was completely destroyed at this point, but the witch boy merely turned his attention onto the next one and began firing, ignoring the distant sound of sirens that signaled the firetrucks on their way.

"They are _nothing!_ " Klarion hissed. "Dirty, filthy, ignorant _mortals!_ "

Another blast of raw energy swallowed up the second warehouse, literally disintegrating the place molecule by molecule.

"And that sorcerer they had with them! Where the _fuck_ did he come from?!" Klarion screeched at a pitch that made even Teekl whine and cover his ears. "Humans aren't supposed to have magic anymore! They killed them all! So why –" _blast_ "- is he-" _blast_ "here?!" _Kabooom!_

A third warehouse went up in bright red flames, burning so hot and fast that it was gone in seconds, even melting the objects around it. The sirens were closer now, Klarion turning his head to see the firetrucks pulling up to the docks.

"Fuckin' humans." He smirked with a bloodthirsty glint in his eye. "They all deserved to be punished, don't they Teekl?"

The demon cat purred in agreement.

"Little mortals should know their place." Klarion's smirk grew into a dark, gleeful grin as he cupped his hands and called forth bright red flames hot enough to melt titanium. "In a world of angels and daemons and monsters… they're nothing but filth. Dirt! Born from nothing, and they will die as nothing!"

He cackled loudly as he sent a blast of magical fire towards the firetrucks, instantly causing them to explode, reveling in the screaming that followed.

"Pathetic."

* * *

 **Tut, tut, Klarion dear. You need a better outlet for your anger issues other than violence. It's not healthy. Especially for humans.**

 **Next chapter: We're back in the House of Mystery with Constantine and YJ, and more of Klarion misbehaving. And a murder. Or two. We'll see.**


	5. Chapter 5 - Disappearing Act

**Another chapter up!**

 **STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES**

* * *

 **They were patrons of the night**

 **Of killers and thieves**

 **Magic and trickery**

 **Embracing the shadows**

A tattered journal sits on the table, worn, fraying, the pages yellowed and torn and stained by time –

 _December 1922_

 _Her name was Phaedra._

 _I found her in New Orleans, deep in the pits of that sinful city, surrounded by pagans and voodoo worshippers. They treated her like a queen, referred to her as "La Dame des Damnés" – Mistress of the Damned._

 _She was in a speakeasy, dressed in a slinky satin dress with long gloves to match, hair shorn at the shoulders. She looked like a normal human, if not for the glow of her eyes, cold, distant, condescending. A man dared to approach her, moving to touch her arm, but at the snap of her fingers he went up in flames, but not long enough to burn. Just a flashfire, and he was gone like that! Just gone!_

 _Somehow, she knew I was there to find her. How else can I explain the way she looked straight into my eyes after using her magic, the smile on her red lips enough to make the most hardened man shiver in fear._

 _She beckoned me closer, and against my better judgement, I heeded her. My father, and his father before him, had passed down the legends of the Maleficari to me… People laughed, jeered, called me insane… But the proof was sitting there in front of me, as real as anything else. She could pass for a human, but there was something about her that made everyone avoid her, as if deep down, our instincts knew what she was._

 _When I went back the next night, it was like it had never even been there. The building was empty, looking as if it had been abandoned for years. The basement where the club had been was caved in._

 _For a moment, I thought I had imagined it all._

 _But a week later I heard whispers from my contacts in the underground. There were men in town, radical evangelists, hunting down the pagans and killing them. I couldn't believe it! Witch hunts were a thing of the past! Everyone knew that New Orleans was the voodoo city. Why come at all?_

 _I looked into it, of course. Curiosity killed the cat._

 _I followed a lead out of the city to the boondocks, to one of the oldest cemeteries in the city, filled with mausoleums and marble sarcophagi. A shiver passed over me as I walked through the entrance, ducking into the shadows and snuck up on a group of men in unusual church robes. They had a few of the pagans tied up and in bad condition._

" _The witch, the witch!" They snarled. "Where is the witch!"_

 _As if they had summoned her, the air on top of a mausoleum shimmered, and suddenly Phaedra appeared out of thin air! Anger was evident on her face, but she remained silent. Her hand glowed bright yellow as she held it up, drawing something in the air, the design appearing beneath the feet of the radicals._

 _Alerted to her presence, they turned to look up at her, yelling words I dare not recount. Still, she did not answer them, only snapping her fingers. The design under their feet lit up, and then_

 _[the ink gathers on the page, where the pen had paused]_

 _Oh darn, I've ruined the page…_

 _I can't help it._

 _What I saw… no one will ever believe me. Even now I tremble at the thought of what she did._

 _The ground sunk in, a hole opened, and out of the ground rose a multitude of claws, talons as large as my face, hooked, sharp, like daggers. The flesh looked as if the skin had been peeled back, cords of muscle visible as blood seeped from between them. The air filled with screeches and snarls like I can't even describe, inhuman, unwordly._

 _The claws snapped up and latched onto the evangelists as they tried to run away, praying to their god as they were dragged backwards to the portal, crying like children, digging their fingers into the ground in desperation but to no avail. I would later find their fingernails scattered in the dirt, stained with flecks of blood._

 _As devout and fanatical as they were, they probably never imagined that they would be confronted with the real thing. When the last of them were dragged into the pit, the hole sucked shut, and the horrible sounds were silenced._

 _My chest was burning – I had not realized that I had stopped breathing._

 _Phaedra leapt down from the roof of the mausoleum and approached her followers, releasing them. They automatically fell to her feet, whispering prayers of thanks in their bastard French._

" _Do not thank me." She told them, motioning for them to get to their feet. "I only saved you because I hated them more. Begone, humans."_

 _The pagans continued to praise her even as they scrambled to leave the graveyard. Then Phaedra burst into flower petals – I'm not even exaggerating! They fell to the ground and shriveled up in seconds._

 _I still can't believe it._

 _It was real. All of it._

 _The Maleficar._

 _I went home and told my colleagues at the newspaper, but they all laughed and called me names. As usual. I woke up the next morning to someone pounding at my door – it was the police. They said nothing as they assaulted me, and dragged me away to the asylum!_

 _An asylum! I am not insane! I know what I saw!_

 _I am Silas Crowe, descended for the Templars of old! The blood of the First Children runs through my veins!_

 _I'm not insane!_

 _I'm not insane!_

 _I'm not in –_

 _[the ink trails off violently, the pages after it are ripped out]_

* * *

"I've been looking into Dr. Thomson's research and came up with something… unusual." Batman's voice echoed through the communications room of Mount Justice. The sound of keys clicking preluded the sight of several files popping up on the big screen. "Dr. Thompson was fascinated with the occult and conspiracy theories. He wasn't very vocal about it, which was why it took some digging."

"Which means he read every book the man's library." Nightwing whispered not-so-softy to the team.

"I _skimmed_." Batman corrected in a dry voice, though Richard could tell his mentor was suppressing the urge to roll his eyes. If they were back in the cave he probably would have been smacked in the back of the head. The rest of the team stifled their snickers.

"Moving on," Batman continued, shushing them all with a look. "Dr. Thompson believed that he was on the verge of a breakthrough, but he didn't share his information with anyone else, whether for fear of ridicule or for selfishness."

Pictures popped up on the screen alongside the files: ancient temples, inscriptions on the walls, pictograms, charcoal rubbings. Some were from ancient civilizations both in the west and the east, with the most recent from 1920's.

"Conspiracy theories." Wally scoffed.

"This is cuneiform from Mesopotamia, the oldest known human civilization." Nightwing murmured as he zoomed into a picture of a stone tablet. "According to Thompson's notes, it talks about oracles and their connection with the divine. Nothing unusual though…"

"A lot of it is pure theory." Batman said. "However, there was one note that stood out –"

One of the pictures on the screen was highlighted, showing an aged journal, pages crinkled and yellowed with age, looking as if it would fall apart at any moment.

"This was from the pages of a man named Silas Crowe, born in 1900 and died in an asylum for the insane in 1940."

"Lovely." Connor growled.

Batman continued, "His journal is the most recent evidence Dr. Thompson had, and from its contents, it sounds similar to the women you encountered in California and Colombia."

The words on the page were scrawled in small, slanted cursive, nearly impossible for them to read. Lucky for them, Thompson had translated the words onto a computer document, which was displayed on the screen beside it.

Silence reigned for a couple minutes as each member of the Young Justice team took a moment to read the script.

"…uh…" Artemis was the first to finish reading, "That… actually sounds like them."

"Phaedra, huh?" Zatanna murmured. "We should go see Elyon again and mention the name. See what kind of reaction we get from her."

"We should also send a team to investigate New Orleans." Nightwing suggested. "Knowing their lifespans, this 'Phaedra' might still be there. Or at least, we might find evidence of her."

"Good idea. Split up and look into it." Batman nodded in approval of both their ideas. He paused, before saying, "And keep working with Constantine. He's our best bet at finding these… witches."

"I think the official term is _Maleficar_." Zatanna corrected off-handedly, only to turn bright red when she remembered it was Batman she was speaking to. The man in question gave her a pointed look before his screen went dark.

The was a cough-slash-snicker from Richard beside her while Zatanna fought to control her blush. "Shut up!"

"I can't believe you corrected him like that." Nightwing cackled. "Oh god that was funny!"

"And people think _you're_ the mature one." Wally chuckled, making Zatanna roll her eyes in a huff.

Kaldur walked over to the computer and began to shuffle through the pictures from Dr. Thompson's 'research'. The rest of the team looked on, every member taking a moment to study each picture and pooling their observations. It went on like this for a few more minutes when the Atlantean froze.

"Wait." He clicked on another picture and enlarged it. "That's Atlantean!"

It was an ancient temple, walls crumbling, nearly consumed by sand. The picture was focused on one of the walls, the sand dug as deep as they could go to reveal what was left of the sunken building. It was a mixture of pictograms and rudimentary letters, mostly defaced by time and erosion, lines stacked on the wall like hieroglyphs.

"It's ancient," The Atlantean looked surprised. "Probably from before we went underwater! Amazing… I thought all evidence of Atlantis had been wiped from the outside world."

"Can you read it?" M'gann asked him, looking equally interested in the mysterious history of Atlantis.

Kaldur squinted and clicked around on the computer for a few moments to enlarge and sharpen the picture. "I can understand a little but our language has changed, and the sentences are incomplete. But it talks about a group of… well, I guess the closest translation would be 'arcane warriors'. And it talks about a war –"

He pointed at a pictogram of two winged humanoid figures, one with a beak and feathered wings, the other with insect-like wings, both had horns growing from their heads, curling like a ram's. The figures held weapons, one with a sword, the other with a spear, facing off against each other.

"-a war which destroyed the world." Kaldur blinked in surprise at the translation. His eyes flickered over the lines for another moment before he began to translate, halting when the sentences were incomplete. "It says, 'The gods came down to earth to harvest their' …. Uh, I think that says 'herd or stock'… 'But the arcane warriors arose and cut them down and'… Consumed? Absorbed? It doesn't translate very well… I can't read the other half of that." Aqualad's gaze traveled down the wall, stopping at the bottom, his eyes widening.

"What does it say?" Zatanna probed.

"There was a civil war of some kind…" Kaldur answered. "It says: 'All burned in the wake of their conflict… they destroyed themselves, and the world with them.'"

"How encouraging." Artemis said. "Please don't tell me this is another apocalypse story."

He continued to study the old Atlantean script, frowning. "I'll send it to some of our historians in Atlantis. It shouldn't take them too long to decipher it completely. Our scholars have preserved much of the ancient world in their library."

"Maybe we can go to the site!" M'gann exclaimed, sounding excited. "Surely the doctor wrote down its location! Oh, that would be exciting."

"If it's in the desert, it's probably buried in sand by now. Especially if this picture is older than a year or two… which it is." Artemis deadpanned.

Wally nudged her shoulder. "Come one Arty, don't be such a negative-Nancy!"

"Call me either of those two names again and I'll cut you." She threatened him, only for Wally to grin and blow a kiss at her. Richard caught Wally's eyes and mouthed 'masochist' to his best friend, earning a smirk and a slap on the shoulder.

* * *

Zatanna, M'gann, and Artemis went back to San Francisco to see Elyon again, Kaldur remaining behind to work on his translations, while Nightwing led Wally and Connor to look for clues in New Orleans. This time they used M'gann's ship to travel right into the heart of the city (cloaked, of course) and dropping them off close to the building Elyon lived in.

They used Nightwing's jamming device to enter the building and followed each other up the stairs to the top floor. Zatanna knocked on the door at the end of the hall, like last time, but there was no answer. She knocked again.

Still no answer.

The girls exchanged suspicious glances as Artemis rested her hand on the knife hidden underneath her clothes and M'gann used her telekinesis to unlock the door. They were all tense as Zatanna pushed the door open slowly, but they need not have been.

The apartment was empty.

"She's gone!" Zatanna gasped as she straightened and walked further into the apartment, all evidence of Elyon's presence absent from the building. The rooms were pristine and smelled like new, the carpets free of indents of any kind. It was like no one had ever lived there in the first place.

"I don't sense her in the building." M'gann frowned, sweeping the place with her mind.

Artemis pulled out her phone and called Kal, asking him to access the building's residential list from the main computer back at Mt. Justice. Shock swept over her features a few seconds later.

"Guys," The other two girls turned to look at Artemis, whose expression was severe. "According to the database, there are no records of 'Elyon' anywhere. This apartment has been empty for two years. Kal's still looking, but there is no one named Elyon in the entire state of California."

The girls exchanged confused glances.

"But we were here with her!" Zatanna shook her head. "We sat in this very room and had freakin' tea with her!"

"Even if 'Elyon' is not her real name," M'gann nodded at Zatanna, "She was definitely here. Physically and mentally. It was no illusion."

Artemis sighed and shook her head, opening her communicator and dialing Nightwing's code. He answered after the second ring, at which point she informed him of their situation.

"Gone? Everything?" Nightwing's frustrated voice cut across the audio of the communicator.

He and the boys had gone to New Orleans while the girls were in San Francisco, asking around about witches and a woman named 'Phaedra', and looking for clues in voodoo shops and sites.

"Damn." Nightwing muttered as he glanced off-screen, Connor and Wally just barely visible behind him. "We haven't found anything here either. The voodoo community isn't exactly open to outsiders. No one's talking."

"They definitely know something." Connor's voice came on the audio as his face popped up over Nightwing's shoulder. "I could hear the change in their heartbeats when we mentioned this 'witch'."

"Looks like we have to go back to Constantine." Zatanna said, hiding her excitement.

Nightwing nodded. "I figured. We'll beam back to base and call him up. Nightwing out."

* * *

It turned out, Constantine was waiting for them. Batman had left a message on the computer that the House of Mystery was taking up a temporary position on the harbor, on the beach of all places. They arrived at sunset to see the large, Victorian-style building just feet away from where the water met the sand, waves lapping on the beach as Constantine lounged on a chair with a beer in his hand, looking less dour than usual in a pair of swim trunks and sunglasses.

"Nice way to live." The sorcerer called out as they approached, not bothering to look up to greet them. "Wish I could afford to do this every day."

"I hope your house isn't visible to the rest of the city." Nightwing chuckled. "You've got to be breaking several building codes having it here."

Constantine waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, only you chaps can see it. The house remembers you kids, so it lets you see it."

Wally seemed to squirm at the thought of the House watching them. The Brit let out a deep sigh and downed the rest of his beer before getting to his feet, waving his hand and making the chair disappear. "Alright, time to get back to business, eh? Everybody in the House, chop-chop."

Like last time, the moment everyone was in the House the door snapped shut and a tingle went down Zatanna's body as she felt the House shift. Constantine led them to the library again, but when they entered, everything was different.

The sitting area was gone, replaced by several tables covered in research. Scrolls and books were scattered about, some open, some closed, notes and scribbles shoved between the pages. There were several maps on the tables, some with little figurines, some written over with diagrams and indecipherable words. Another table had a large globe atop it, looking out of place in the antique library with its futuristic design, glowing and transparent with a few labels floating above several locations.

Most curious, hovering above one of the larger maps was the crystal necklace that Constantine had used to track down Klarion before, suspended in thin air and lazily swinging in small circles.

"I've been keeping an eye on the situation since Colombia." Constantine began as he walked around the room. "And a few things have come to my attention. First, and most important, is that this is much bigger than we initially thought."

"What do you mean?" Aqualad asked, looking concerned.

"Whatever Klarion is doing, it's affecting magic worldwide." The Brit answered in a serious voice. "It's making everyone nervous. Even the big blokes are getting shifty."

"Big blokes?" Wally asked him, curious.

"Angels, demons, the like." He responded in an off-handed tone, ignoring the bewildered looks of the team and Wally choking on his words. "People are asking questions, and no one seems to know the answers. But the magic in this world is changing… getting stronger, actually. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

"Probably a bad thing." Zatanna said as she glanced over the materials strewn haphazardly on library's tables. "Some might see it as a new opportunity to attack humanity."

Constantine hummed in agreement. "Aside from that, I've also been looking into any legends pertaining to these _Maleficari_."

" _Maleficari_?" M'gann asked, unfamiliar with the term.

"It's what they call themselves. It means _magicians_ in their own tongue." Constantine informed her. " _Maleficar_ for the singular."

"We found mention of them on an ancient Atlantean recording." Kaldur mentioned.

Constantine nodded. "Makes sense. They existed around the same time. Although the Maleficari escaped the Flood and continued to exist in the surface world."

Kaldur looked surprised at that comment. "What else did you find out about them?"

"House! Dim the lights!" Constantine ordered as the lights automatically dimmed and he muttered a spell under his breath. A hologram appeared before them above the largest table, showing the same kind of pictograms that they saw in Dr. Thompson's research and more.

"The Maleficari are legends even among the magical society," Constantine informed them as the hologram began to flit between profiles of people ranging from statues in Mesopotamia to Renaissance portrait paintings. "But even among magical circles, their history is mostly obscured. They are regarded as the most powerful race of magicians to ever exist. They were a civilization at one point, and surprisingly militaristic, but for some reason they disbanded."

"The Atlantean ruins mentioned something about a civil war." The Atlantean quickly interjected.

Constantine gave him a dirty look for interrupting. "… Yes, that sounds like the most common explanation I heard. The only thing we know for sure about them is that before the turn of the last millennia, the year 1000 in the modern era, another war broke out between them and some other magical faction that remains unknown to us. This continued until the dark ages, when the Maleficari suddenly disappeared. A few of them popped up over the centuries – mostly during the witch hunts, where they were, of course, killed. But for some reason, their organization fell. Perhaps their leaders were killed, or their bases destroyed, whatever the reason, they scattered."

While the sorcerer had been talking, the floating pictures showed several antique paintings, mostly portraits of people who were believed to have been Maleficari, along with a few paintngs of lost cities and magical battles.

"Wait!" Zatanna exclaimed, waving for Constantine to pause the spell. "Zoom in on that painting!"

He did as she said, and Zatanna, Nighwing, M'gann and Artemis all gasped. It was a Dutch portrait from centuries ago of a wealthy merchant and his household. Included was his wife and two daughters, the wife seated on his right with a small girl in her lap, while the older daughter stood in front of him, barely tall enough to reach his waist. But it was the man's wife which caught their attention - a woman with pale blonde hair, silver-grey eyes, and a serene smile on her lips.

"What is it?" Connor asked, voicing the confusion of the rest of the team.

"Elyon!" Nightwing's mouth dropped open.

M'gann shook her head incredulously. "This painting is dated 1506. Incredible!"

"Are you sure it's her?" Wally lifted a brow doubtfully.

"Definitely." Zatanna nodded. "Every detail is the same, down to the color of her eyes."

There was a moment's pause before Constantine chuckled. "Rumor has it that the Maleficari were immortal. Looks like it has some merit."

"Immortal!?" Everyone yelped.

"…Crap, how are we supposed to beat Klarion now?" Wally muttered.

Connor smirked wryly at that. "We could bury his head on the opposite side of the planet from his body."

"Connor!" M'gann admonished, only making him chuckle louder.

Suddenly the sound of bells interrupted their conversation. Constantine's head snapped to look over at the table with the map and crystal, the rest of Young Justice following his gaze. The crystal had broken from its suspension and had landed point-down on the map, standing straight and glowing red.

"Looks like we've got a hit!" The Brit crowed as he rushed over to it, the team following him.

"Are you still trying to find Klarion?" Kal asked him.

"It's called _scrying_." Constantine sniffed as he wrote down the coordinates. "And yes, I have. The little blighter already made another stop, in Korea of all places, but by the time I got there _two_ coffins were empty."

The team winced at the thought.

"He has been hiding away in his pocket dimension for the past few days, but I knew he'd be back. There's more Maleficari to awaken, and I was sure he would go after them." Constantine continued as he straightened and snapped his fingers, his swim trunks disappearing as black slacks and a loosely-buttoned shirt took its place, his signature overcoat floating through the doorway and into his awaiting hand.

"Anyone fancy a trip to Egypt?"

* * *

 **Please leave a review!**


	6. Chapter 6 - Two for One deal

**Two more OC's will be revealed in this chapter, and then we'll be all set for the cast! And then the real fun will begin!**

"Talking"

' _Mind speaker 1'_

 _Mind speaker2_

" _Speaking another language"_

 **STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES**

* * *

 **Children of the desert**

 **Of blood in the sand**

 **Born of war and empires**

The coordinates led them deep into the desert in the southern part of Egypt, where the population was sparse and water less so. The location was nothing but sand, no ruins or any other sign of humanity in sight. Just the hot sun, the hot sand, and a bright blue sky.

"How much you wanna bet the burial place is buried in the desert?" Constantine muttered in a grumpy tone as he pulled out a few magical, scarab-looking devices from his coat pockets and threw them towards the dunes, where they promptly came to life and began to wriggle into the sand.

"If it is, how do we get to it?" Kid Flash asked. "It's super hard to dig in sand, it just slides back in place!"

"What were those things?" Zatana asked, pointing to where the scarab-devices had disappeared.

"A little something I picked up." Constantine chuckled wryly. "They're scanning the sand around them for anything unusual. Hopefully they can find what we're looking for."

They retreated back into the House while the scarabs searched the area, escaping the heat and dry air, as it was detrimental to Kaldur and M'gann especially. It took an hour or so, during which time the group sat down in the dining room to have a light lunch with the food appearing out of nowhere and then disappearing when they were done, but eventually Constantine leapt to his feet with a victorious cry, surprising the rest of the group. He rushed out of the dining room without so much as a 'by your leave', the rest of the team scrambling to follow him out the door.

"It's deep, very deep," Constantine was speaking even as they struggled to catch up with him. "But they sensed a large construct beneath the surface."

"Any way to get it above ground?" Nightwing questioned him.

"I've got an idea or two." The Brit turned to eye Zatanna with a smirk.

The girl blinked. "Uh… what?"

"You ready to start using some _real_ magic, girlie?" Constantine asked her.

She narrowed her eyes at that. "Only if you never call me 'girlie' again, prick."

The sorcerer only laughed as he conjured a paper between his fingers and handing it to her. "Read these words with me and pool as much magic as you can. I'll direct its flow."

A few moments later the earth began to shake, the sands began to shift, and suddenly they were all backpedaling as fast as possible as something extremely large and wide began to emerge from the desert. A spire pierces the surface, followed by a tower, and then widened into a dome. The building continued to rise, taking up more and more space, forcing the team back further and further. Sand was kicked up and caught by the wind, flying into their faces and sneaking into every crevice of their bodies.

"How big _is_ this place?!" Artemis exclaimed as a giant temple arose from the ground, three times larger than the House of Mystery.

"Large enough." Wally muttered as he took her into his arms and curled around her, pushing her face into his chest to protect her from the lashing wind, Connor doing the same with M'gann.

Eventually the world stopped quaking, magic holding up the ancient ruin so that it would not slip back down into the hungry depths of the desert. Constantine muttered a few words to check for wards and magical traps, while Zatanna slumped onto Richard's shoulder, exhausted from using so much magic.

"Gonna have to work on your reserves, lass." Constantine told her as he patted her back. "But ye did well, for your first big spell. Heh, that rhymed."

"You're hilarious." She drawled sarcastically as the Brit began walking up the stairs into the dark entryway of the temple. The rest of the team quickly followed, if only to escape the sun.

"Shhh!" Constantine suddenly shushed them all as he darted into the shadows. The heroes quickly followed suit, even if they did not understand why. He held up his scrying crustal, the stone glowing red. "Klarion is in here!"

Ah, that explained it. They continued forward in stealth, quiet and tense. The temple was large and wide, the main room empty save for piles of sand and broken tile. Beyond that was a smaller chamber, where the main altar was set up, statues of ancient gods surrounding the room, some still standing, most toppled to the ground. At the end of the room was an altar area much different from a church: there was a raised dais, whereupon two thrones sat. Behind them, leaning against the wall, were two vertical sarcophagi, carved from the same white marble as the others had been, and inscribed with wards and seals of all kinds.

And of course, Klarion was in front of them, two red beams shooting from his palms as he slowly began to carve through the marble.

"I know you're there, little heroes!" Klarion's voice echoed through the chamber, making them all jump. "Did you think I would not feel the building move? Or the burst of your pathetic human magic?"

He laughed, his demonic cat hissing at them from between his feet.

Constantine instantly realized why the boy did not bother to turn to face them and cursed under his breath. "The bastard has put up a ward between us!"

"What?" The rest of the team blinked in confusion.

The Brit picked up a random piece of rock and flung it towards the dais, only for the rock to collide with an invisible wall, everything from the ceiling to the floor flashing red for a second. Understanding dawned on the heroes. Klarion's back was protected, and they were running out of time.

"What do we do?" Miss Martian asked the sorcerer.

"I need figure out what kind of ward it is and if there is a weakness I can exploit," Constantine muttered. "If all else fails, we can only hope that we can blast our way through it, but I doubt it is that weak. Either way, it will take time, time we cannot afford." He eyed the split lids of the coffins, already a fourth of the way open.

"Then start already!" Artemis hissed.

Constantine rolled his eyes at the girl. "I know, I know, don't get yer panties in a twist."

He closed his eyes, ignoring the hissed threats coming from the archer, as he held his palms up to face the shield. The sorcerer reached out with his magic, blindly feeling his way around the spell. A few minutes later Constantine smirked, opened his eyes, and made a punching motion with his hand, muttering counter-curse.

The ward shattered like glass, causing Klarion to jump and turn around with an expression of the utmost loathing.

"You're too late, you filthy mortal!" The witch boy snarled as his familiar leapt into the open sarcophagi and disturbed their occupants.

"Stop the cat!" Constantine yelled as he engaged Klarion in another duel of magic.

Both sarcophagi were visible from where the Young Justice team was standing, presenting the two bodies within. Those who had not been present at the awakening in Colombia gasped at the sight of two perfectly preserved bodies, a boy and a woman, looking youthful and healthy, as if they were merely sleeping. The two looked alike, with golden-tan skin, jet-black hair, oval faces, slim frames and similar features. The woman was older by a few years, but it was easy to tell that they were related in some way.

The demonic familiar placed its paw on the boy first, both of their bodies glowing red for a second before the boy's eyes fluttered open.

"Oh shit…" Kid Flash muttered as he sped towards it. Artemis began shooting at the cat, but it easily danced out of the way of her arrows, much to her frustration.

As the boy woke up the cat scampered over to the next coffin, waking the woman in the same way. Out of nowhere, skeletons arose from the sand that filled the chamber, outfitted in ancient armor and rusted swords. They must have been buried in the temple long ago, the red magic encasing their bodies evidence of Klarion's magic.

"That is _really_ freaky!" Wally practically screeched as he skidded to a stop just before a skeleton sliced down in front of him.

"Undead? Seriously?" Superboy growled as two armored skeletons came after him.

M'gann floated above the fray and began attempting to make contact with the newly awakened Maleficari, hoping that they would be as understanding as Elyon, and less violent than Lyra had been upon waking up.

" _Sennet?_ " The boy mumbled as his eyes finally opened wide. He grabbed the edges of the sarcophagus and pulled himself forward and out.

" _Napir!_ " The woman gasped, doing the same and stumbling forward as she exited the coffin. _"Sen!"_

' _Zatanna._ ' M'gann spoke into the magician's mind as the girl cut down a skeleton and ran to join Constantine in fighting Klarion. _'Can you do the translation spell again?'_

' _Just… gimme a sec…'_ The girl struggled to concentrate as she dodged another blast of magic from Klarion. _'Wait, do you even know what language they're speaking this time?'_

' _Uh…'_ The Martian winced; she hadn't thought about that!

The two newly awakened Maleficari only had eyes for each other when they first came to, the older woman pulling the boy into her arms and mumbling under her breath. " _Dua Netjer en ek!"_

They jerked apart as it finally occurred to them that there was a battle happening in the room, tensing as they felt someone knocking at their mind's walls. M'gann felt one of them open up slightly, a sense of curiosity emanating from them.

 _Who is there?_

' _Oh!'_ She blinked in surprise at the young male voice, soft, unsure, confused. So it was the boy. _'Hi! My name is M'gann! What language to you speak?'_

 _Many._ The boy answered simply.

Miss Martian frowned. _'How shall I speak to you in tongue?'_

She could feel the boy weighing her words for a moment, felt the doubt and suspicion cross his mind. Unsure of how to gain his trust, M'gann opened her mind a little more so that he could glimpse her inner self: insecurity, determination, fear, hope, love…

The boy quickly shut her out, much to her confusion. _Don't… It is too confusing…_

' _My apologies.'_ She murmured mentally.

 _My sister and I speak Egyptian… among other languages..._ He told her.

M'gann mentally cheered and quickly relayed the information back to Zatanna, who quickly muttered her translation spell as she dodged another attack from Klarion. The two Maleficari jerked in shock when they felt magic tingle on their lips.

 _What did you do?!_ The boys voice suddenly roared in her head, making the Martian wince as he began to attack her mental shields.

' _Wait! It was just a translation spell so we could talk to you!'_ M'gann protested, floating backwards away from the fray and holding her head as it pounded. The younger Maleficar backed off mentally, but shut her mind out of his.

At this point, most of the skeletal warriors had been defeated, but Klarion had the upper hand against Zatanna and Constantine. The witch boy suddenly waved his hands, and another wall went up between them and the Maleficari. M'gann couldn't even get past it with her mind.

"We don't have time!" Constantine yelled. "Throw everything you've got against the shield. Hopefully we can break it!"

* * *

 ***Note: They are speaking their own language to each other**

As the team began to throw punches, kicks, and exploding arrows at the shield, the two newly awakened Maleficari turned to stare at Klarion as he approached them, his familiar leaping into his arms.

"Sister," He greeted them in the common tongue of old, nodding at the woman first and then turned to the younger boy, "Brother. My name is Klarion, of the Parllaxi clan. I welcome thee back to the world of the living."

"Nazidha. This is my brother, Napir." The woman nodded to him as she switched from Egyptian to Latin, scanning the strange people that assaulted the ward from the corner of her eye. "Why are we under attack, boy?"

"They fear thy power." Klarion told them. "The humans rebelled against us, imprisoning or killing most of our kindred! We are scattered, lost! The pantheon is gone, and those of us which survived went into hiding!"

"The pantheon is gone?!" Nazidha and Napir both exclaimed, glancing at each other fearfully.

"We were betrayed, comrades!" Klarion told them, eyes glowing in rage. "Betrayed to hunters and templars! We were hunted like animals, tortured, burned, beheaded! Everything with magic was scorned and wiped out!"

Nazidha narrowed her eyes, flashing in anger. "Tis truth?! How dare they! The audacity!" Her fingers curled into fists, magic flashing around her hands.

Napir glanced over at the magical wall that separated them from the mortals, then up at the girl who was floating above them, noting with surprise her green skin and strange powers. In fact, the others with her were all unusual for humans… some, he could sense, didn't feel very human at all. In fact, there were two magical signatures over there!

"But… those people…" He began softly, earning the attention of the other Maleficari. "I don't think all of them are human… a-and there are magicians among them!"

"They have turned on their kind!" Klarion swiftly interjected. "Sold us out so that they would be spared!"

"Be careful, brother." Nazidha cautioned Napir. "Humans are not to be trusted. They are selfish creatures, liars and thieves, always vying for power and wealth. Remember the wars in our day? Never trust mortals. They cannot see beyond themselves."

"Exactly." Klarion agreed with the sister.

"Why wake us all now?" Nazidha suddenly asked him.

"Those of us which remain are fading away as magic dies in this world," Klarion told them. "But they are weak-willed and afraid. They are not brave enough to reclaim what is ours by right! They would watch this world wither and die, and turn to ash with it! But I refuse! The humans are nothing but insects compared to us, yet they run this world into ruin with their greed! I will no longer stand for it!"

Images flowed into their minds from Klarion, poisoned earth, metallic machines, black smoke, and dying animals. Then it was followed by memories, of magical creatures being hunted to extinction, magical children thrown into the river to drown, men and women burning alive or beheaded at the block.

Napir was horrified at the sight, and felt the incredible rage emanating from of his sister as her eyes flashed from brown to lime green, teeth grinding.

"Bastards! Whoresons! Pigs!" She began cursing, and in several languages at that.

"Forsooth! The humans don't deserve this world." Klarion agreed.

Napir still felt uneasy about the boy, however. "But, we are not supposed to use our powers on mortals –"

"Forget the damn creed!" His sister interrupted him, turning on him as her eyes glowed and the braids in her hair snapping like a whip. "The humans were always deceitful! They never deserved our protection, Napir!"

Her brother drew away from her, shaking his head. "B-But our Pharis always said –"

"The Pharis is dead."

They both froze.

Turning to face Klarion, they stared into his eyes, only to see the truth shining through. "The humans bound her soul and sent it into Inferno."

"No…" An incredible sadness welled up in Nazidha as she practically moaned in grief, a hand reaching up to cover her mouth in shock. Napir was equally horrified. The Pharis? The greatest of them all? The famed god-killer?

Suddenly a loud crack interrupted their conversation, and all three Maleficari turned to stare at the magical ward keeping out the mortals. It was weakening.

"Let them come!" Nazidha suddenly growled. "Blasted mortals! All shall be punished for the fate of thine holy lady!"

"No, not here. When we attack, all of humanity will fall." Klarion announced as he reached out and summoned a portal. "They are nothing but grunts. We shall awaken the others, rebuild our forces, then attack all at once."

Nazidha was still bristling as she glared at the mortals, but reluctantly nodded. _"_ Then we shall follow you."

Klarion grinned and stepped through his portal, Nazidha close behind. At that moment the ward shattered, and Napir flinched as the less-than-human girl from before – M'gann – suddenly invaded his mind.

' _Wait!'_ She cried, sending him confusing images of herself and her comrades, fighting others, protecting others, humans laughing, smiling. Peace. _'Do not go with Klarion! He is evil!'_

 _Is he?_ Napir asked her suspiciously. _Or is he evil because of his magic?_

' _No! It's not like that!'_ This strange non-human quickly objected. _'My friends and I are protectors! We protect normal humans from bad guys! Villains! People that want to hurt others or take over the world! And Klarion – Klarion wants to hurt a lot of people! He_ enjoys _hurting them!'_

Napir hesitated, glancing over to where his sister was already stepping through the portal. M'gann sent him more images, of Klarion attacking them, attacking mortals, destroying cities and laughing at their tears. She showed him images of her comrades defeating him, defending the helpless and saving them from harm.

" _Sen?_ Napir?" Nazidha's voice broke his thoughts as she waved her arm and sent the approaching mortals flying backwards to hold them off. "Come! Through the portal before they recuperate!"

Napir hesitated. He had always followed his sister. He loved her more than anyone else in the world. But Klarion was wrong. He knew that Nazidha had never been fond of humans, but the creed was explicit. They had to be better than this.

Napir stepped back.

"B-Brother?" Nazidha's eyes widened in confusion and fear. She reached out to him, but he took another step back, shaking his head.

"No, _sennet_." He told her in a softly, his tone apologetic. Napir avoided looking into her eyes, which were glassy with emotion. "I am not going."

"B-But… they betrayed us!" She exploded, trembling with emotion.

Napir gave her a sad smile. "I swore to uphold the creed, Nazidha. And I intend to, even if I'm the only one who will stand by it."

Several emotions flashed through her eyes at once, before her expression shuttered closed and she gave him a stony look. "Fool."

Nazidha turned and walked through Klarion's portal, which snapped shut behind her. Napir felt his heart break, and willed back the tears that welled in his eyes. They had left without him. Gone.

"Goodbye, sister."

* * *

The portal snapped shut, the Young Justice team drawing up just short of the young boy who had opted to remain behind. He turned to meet them, body tense, eyes cautious as he studied them, and the heroes studied him in return. Now that they were closer, they could see the flecks of green and orange that flickered in his hazel irises, curly black hair shorn to his neck, a few small scars scattered across where his worn tunic revealed skin. He looked to be around their age, if a little younger, tall and slim though his face was still a little round with youth.

" _Salvut_." He greeted them in a low voice, eyeing them in equal parts curiosity and suspicion.

" _Hello, Maleficar. My name is Constantine. These are my comrades."_ Constantine stepped forward, Zatanna's translation spell kicking in as he introduced the team.

" _Well met."_ The boy inclined his head regally. _"I am Napir Al-Bashura, of the Perilune clan."_

" _Why did you not follow the others?"_ Constantine tilted his head.

The witch boy turned his gaze away from the sorcerer and nodded at Miss Martian in answer. _"You were the one who spoke to me."_

"Yes." She nodded, going on to explain to her teammates, "Klarion was trying to convince them to turn against us, but I showed him Klarion's true nature through my memories of the villain."

"It still doesn't tell us why he didn't go with them." Connor crossed his arms.

Napir's expression wavered, but he quickly schooled it to neutrality. "The Maleficari are not supposed to use their powers against mortals. Despite Klarion's urgings, I chose to stand by the creed. I will uphold the ancient codes, even if I must stand alone."

He seemed to straighten at those words, a determination flashing through his eyes that impressed a few of the other heroes of Young Justice.

"You won't stand alone." Nightwing approached the witch boy with a congenial smile on his face. "We will stand with you. And we have many allies that will stand beside you as well."

"You are the protectors of this world?" Napir asked him, although it sounded more like a statement.

"Indeed." Kal came to stand beside Nightwing, placing a hand on his comrade's shoulder. "We are a team of heroes who protect humanity from threats both in this world and beyond. And we could always use more help."

Napir took a moment to study each member of their team, noting with surprise that not all of them were human, some were magicians, though weaker than he, and others were… not of this world. And the Atlantean… He had never seen an Atlantean before, as he had been born after the great Flood. Nazidha would have found that intriguing; she had the opportunity to travel to the ancient capital of Poseidonis when she had still been an apprentice.

His chest tightened at the thought of his sister.

There was no concept of good or evil in the Maleficari, as being immortal often blurred the lines of morality. Sure, they weren't supposed to use their powers on humans, but that usually didn't stop them from taking up positions of power in this world. Klarion's actions were not unusual for many Maleficar, in fact, Napir would guess that most Maleficari felt the same way about humanity. He was not the first Maleficar to turn his back on the creed…

Once, their pantheon would have kept such power-hungry Maleficar in check. But the pantheon had fallen, and now there would be no one to stop Klarion. Napir had been young when he had fallen into _Dium Somnium_ , so he wasn't much stronger than the other witch boy. But surely there were other Maleficari still living in this world?

These 'heroes' could help him find them.

" _Pronto."_ Napir nodded finally, meeting their gaze. " _I will come with you."_

* * *

 **We finally meet another witch boy! And m** **ore and more clues to the Maleficari mystery are revealed... I mentioned several pieces of lore, did you catch them all?**

 **Napir is pronounced "nah-PEER". He and his sister were speaking ancient Egyptian to each other (like from the time of the Pharoahs). More will be revealed about him later as he opens up to the team.**

 **Fun fact: Constantine's little scarab devices are Reach technology that he rewired to serve him**

 **Thank you for reading! Please leave a review!**


	7. Chapter 7 - The Pocket Dimension

**Hey guys! I'm back already! This is a relatively short chapter, but I promise I'll release a longer one soon enough.**

 **STANDARD DISCLAIMER APPLIES.**

* * *

After their adventure in Egypt the team decided to return to Mt. Justice and inform Batman of what had happened. Kal took over the debrief with Batman while Nightwing guided Napir to his room. Given that Napir was a rather thin boy, it was decided that he would fit Nightwing's clothes best, since the other boys on the team were broader than them both. Then the witch boy was introduced to the modern shower, much to his apparent amusement.

"What's so funny?" Richard asked him when Napir began smirking.

The Maleficar turned to him with a smirk. _"It's about time you humans figured out water systems."_

Richard raised his eyebrows at that. "You mean indoor plumbing? Your people already had it?"

" _And much more. Except our bathes used magic, not… lightning."_ Napir nodded, the wording of his sentences was awkward due to inaccuracies of the translation spell. _"Much has changed. I suppose I will have to learn about the world all over again."_

The young man suddenly seemed much older than his looks, ancient even, as the air around him turned despondent. A man lost in time.

"How old were you when you… uh, went to sleep?" The hero asked as they turned the shower on and waited for the water to warm up.

" _Hm… I had not yet celebrated a millennium. My apologies for being vague, but my head is still muddled from_ _Dium Somnium_ **.** " Napir murmured as he pulled off the fraying tunic that he had been buried in.

Richard was a little startled at the sudden nudity, before he remembered that ancient humans had been much more comfortable with being naked (public bathes and such). He began to look away before something caught his eye.

"Your… your back!" The young hero hissed at the sight of white scar tissue crisscrossing along the Napir's back.

The witch boy blinked, reaching up to briefly touch his shoulder, before he finally remembered what was there. _"Ah yes. That."_

"What… what happened?" Richard asked, horrified at the evidenced abuse.

" _I was a slave, a long time ago."_ Napir said calmly, shrugging his shoulders as he tested the water in the shower. There were other scars on his body, evidence of a long life of conflict, so many that they were impossible to count. _"Do not let it bother you. Those people are long dead. Even before I entered the dream."_

Richard wanted to say more, but Napir was already pulling back the curtain and stepping into the shower. "Well, uh, I'll go get a spare change of clothes and leave them on the counter. There are fresh towels on the rack and… I guess I'll come back and check on you in a couple minutes."

Napir gave a noncommittal hum from the shower as Richard backed out, making a hasty escape to the main room where Kal and M'gann were speaking with Batman. His thoughts were whirling at the memory of Napir's scars. It had never occurred to him what Maleficari must have witnessed in their long lives. Human history was filled with war and struggle, and no doubt they had witnessed much of it. If the Maleficari had seen and suffered half as much as the humans had throughout history, Richard really couldn't blame them for hating humanity so much.

 _Those were whip lashes on his back._ Richard thought with a mix of fury and sadness. _Slavery. How old was he when it happened? He must have been quite young, if he was powerless to help himself._

Nightwing was lost in thought as he entered the main room, Miss Martian and Batman instantly sensing his unease.

"Is something wrong, Nightwing?" Batman asked him pointedly.

"No, sir." Nightwing shook off his dark mood. Napir's scars were his story to tell. "Where did the others go?"

"Wally and Artemis had to hurry back to school to take some exams." M'gann informed him, still looking at him with worried eyes. "Connor went to feed Wolf. He should be back soon."

"And Zatanna is still pestering Constantine to teach her more magic." Kaldur chuckled. It was amusing to see the older Brit become so frustrated by the young sorceress, Zatanna following him around with a star struck gaze. "He went outside for a smoke. She followed."

Even Batman seemed amused by the interaction of the two magicians, his mouth softening into what might have been an extremely faint smile. "Constantine is a talented sorcerer. If anyone is qualified to teach someone as powerful as Zatanna, it would be him. If she can convince him to, anyway."

"His defenses are weakening. I give it another week or so." M'gann giggled, turning back to Nightwing. "How is Napir adjusting?"

The three heroes noticed Nightwing hesitate for a moment before he answered, "He is taking things well, for a boy waking up two thousand years or so in the future. So far nothing seems too shocking for him. He mentioned that the Maleficari had a system of indoor plumbing before, and he hasn't commented much on our use of electricity, other than to say that the Maleficari used magic as their power source instead."

"Magic instead of electricity?" Kaldur asked, looking intrigued. "Sounds similar to Atlantis. I wonder how close our two empires were before they fell."

"Have you checked in with the scholars in Atlantis about the runes?" M'gann asked him, referencing the photograph of an ancient Atlantean temple from Dr. Thompson's notes.

The Atlantean shook his head. "Not yet. I'll call later today."

" _So you_ _ **are**_ _an Atlantean!"_

They all looked up to see Napir walking into the room, wearing Richard's clothes, which were too long given their difference in height, but at least they fit width-wise. Napir had rolled up the sleeves and the cuffs of the jeans, feet bare. The sand had been washed out of his hair, dark black curls pulled into a low ponytail, the dirt scrubbed from his face so that his skin shone golden-tan.

 _He's... quite handsome._ M'gann couldn't help but notice.

"You know of us?" Kaldur asked the witch boy, wondering just how old the boy was. Atlantis had sunk into the sea several thousand years ago – surely the boy wasn't _that_ old?

" _I do."_ Napir nodded as he came to stand beside Nightwing. " _Though sadly, I never got to see it. I was born many centuries after the Flood, but my sister visited once."_

"The girl that was buried beside you?" Batman clarified.

Napir turned to study the dark knight critically, as if just realizing his presence. _"Yes. Her name is Nazidha. She is much older than me."_

"If she has visited Atlantis before the deluge, then she must be at least 5,000 years old!" Kal exclaimed in shock.

" _Indeed_." Napir answered, chuckling at their incredulous looks.

"So then how old are you?" Batman asked him in a gravelly voice.

" _Why is everyone so fascinated with my age?_ " Napir shook his head. _"Most of my memories are still jumbled from_ _ **Dium Somnium.**_ _My earliest memories are of Egypt under the Macedonian occupation."_

"Dium Somnium? Latin for ' _the long dream_ '." Batman murmured. "And the Macedonian occupation, you say? Do you mean Ptolemaic Egypt?"

"That would make you over two thousand years old!" Nightwing's mouth dropped open.

" _Yes, unfortunately. Inbred sycophants_." Napir curled his lips at the thought of the false kings that had taken over his country.

"That's not nice." The Martian scolded.

"Actually, they really were inbred." Richard told her. "The ancient Egyptian pharaohs were only allowed to marry within the royal family. Most ruling couples were siblings or cousins."

"That's… that's awful!" M'gann exclaimed, horrified. Even Kaldur winced beside her at the thought. "Inbreeding causes so many genetic mutations and deformations and–"

"Yes. We know." Batman interrupted her before she could give a scientific lecture on genetics. The dark knight was still focused on Napir. "But this _Dium Somnium_ means that you did not age while you were asleep?"

Napir nodded. " _I entered the long dream a few years after my ninth century. So technically, I am only nine-hundred."_

"Only nine-hundred, he says." The Atlantean shook his head. " _Only_ nine-hundred."

"Wait, why do you still look so young?" M'gann asked in shock.

To their astonishment, Napir chuckled _."My people are immortal. As we grow older, we age much slower."_

Nightwing snorted at that. "Basically eternal youth, huh? Wow."

"What are your powers? Can you fight?" Batman continued without pause, looming over the witch boy and watching him suspiciously. Napir only seemed amused at Batman's attempt at intimidation. He leaned his weight on one leg and crossed his arms.

" _The Maleficari have a wide variety of magical abilities."_ Napir began slowly, as if unsure of how much to tell them. _"We are trained the basics of warfare as children – combat training, tactical strategies, and more. After completing our basic education, we go on to an apprenticeship and specializations."_

"And yours are…?" Batman prompted.

" _I can fight with almost any weapon, but I have a preference for dual blades."_ Napir answered him, taking a moment to mourn the loss of his favorite set of daggers. _"I was part of the Maleficari army, and specialize in combat magic and Daedric summons."_

"Wait, wait!" Constantine's voice sliced through the room as he entered through the sliding doors, Zatanna hot on his heels and hissing at him under her breath. Probably still nagging him to train her. "No one's summoning demons in my house!"

"This… isn't your house." Aqualad told him in a dry voice.

"Tis a figure of speech." Constantine stuck his tongue out at the Atlantean, much to their collective amusement.

"Why are we summoning demons?" Connor's voice was added to the mix as he walked in with Wolf in tow.

Napir's eyes lit up at the sight of the genetically modified wolf. _"You have a familiar?"_

"A what now?" Superboy raised an eyebrow.

"A familiar is an animal partner that works alongside… whatever it is you do." Constantine quickly interjected. "So technically, yes, you have a familiar."

"Cool." Connor shrugged and patted Wolf on his large square head. The Wolf rumbled in agreement.

" _All Maleficari have demonic familiars."_ Napir told them, everyone's attention turning back to the witch boy. _"They are an integral part of our fighting abilities."_

"But the only Maleficar we've seen with a familiar is Klarion." Zatanna pointed out.

Napir smirked at that, much to their confusion. " _Klarion's familiar can fit in this world. Most of ours cannot."_

"What does that mean?" Batman asked in a cautious tone, but Constantine answered this time.

"The world of Inferno is much larger than our own." The British sorcerer told them. "There are many demons who could never fit their true bodies on Earth. They are too large. Instead, they either possess a body here on Earth or craft an avatar of some kind."

" _Klarion's Daedra - or what humans like to call demons - is small compared to most."_ Napir nodded in agreement, his smirk widening. _"No wonder the boy has issues. He's got a tiny Daedra. Everyone else's is bigger."_

"Ha!" Constantine patted the witch boy on the back, much to everyone's surprise. It took some of the younger teenagers to understand the subtext, and then there were several coughs, smirks, and blushes all around.

"What are your experiences in fighting?" Batman interrupted their snickers, looking slightly frustrated at the teenagers and their antics.

Napir shrugged off Constantine's hand as he straightened. " _I have fought for hundreds of years and in several wars. I have many experiences. Why?"_

"Klarion is building an army of Maleficari. What for, we don't know, but it can't be good." Batman said. "We need to stop him before –"

"Oh, he wants to destroy humanity." Napir hummed as he walked over to Wolf and let the animal sniff him before scratching his large ears. Wolf's tail thumped loudly against the floor.

"I'm sorry, repeat that?" Constantine asked as the entire room turned to stare at Napir.

The witch boy looked at them over his shoulder with a bored 'what-did-you-not-hear-me?' look on his face. "He wants to destroy humanity."

"Not another one." Nightwing groaned.

"Right." Aqualad sighed as he rubbed his face. "Of course he does."

Superboy shrugged. "I don't blame him. Humans kinda suck."

Constantine nodded in agreement. "Yeah…"

"Connor!" M'gann chided him, sending a glare at Constantine for encouraging him.

"And how does he plan to destroy all of humanity, exactly?" Zatanna piped up.

Napir looked at the strange little sorceress, sharp eyes studying her with a calculating gaze. She was strong, for a human, and so was the man Constantine, for that matter. They were nothing compared to a Maleficar, but it was still a surprise to see that magic still ran through human veins. She was untrained, however, which was a pity.

" _There was a civil war before we fell to ruin."_ Napir sighed, looking ashamed of the actions of his people. _"It was brutal and ugly and without regard for those caught in the crossfire. Thousands of humans would die in a single battle between our factions. Klarion is resurrecting our warriors to finish that fight. This time, there will be a final victor, regardless of the cost of that victory."_

"But why?" Zatanna looked horrified and confused.

Napir hesitated. " _It… It is not easy to explain. Our history with humans is tumultuous at best. But I think… I think he just wants to bring back our people. But there is not enough room on this world for both human and Maleficari civilizations."_

"But surely there is another way!" Zatanna shook her head in denial.

Napir sent her pitying look. _"One must fall before the other can rise."_

* * *

Klarion smirked to himself and ran his fingers languidly down the arch of Teekl's spine, the demonic cat purring like a motor in his arms. He looked over the crowd of Maleficari that were gathered in his pocket dimension, slowly but surely acclimating to this new world.

He had fashioned his pocket dimension after the temples of the old Maleficari dominion. The dimension was shaped like a building, white marble arches reaching for the illusionary sky, colored glass windows painting the tiles floor with rainbows. The walls were painted with moving pictures of magical creatures frolicking through a forest, now lost to myth or hunted to extinction by those nasty humans. Much of the building was open to the gardens that surrounded it, a simple spell keeping the insects from wandering in through the open entryways. The gardens outside were filled with flowers of every color, even a few magical species that were extinct in the human world. Flowers grown of crystal winked in the light like scattered diamonds, birds in the trees singing with bell-like chirps, flashing iridescent feathers.

A fountain bubbled happily in the center of the courtyard, filled with glittering silver fishes and a friendly baby serpent splashing one of the Maleficar that sat on the edge reading a book. The girl, a petite little thing from Scandinavia with pale blonde curls and a cherub face, gasped and lifted her book out of the way of the droplets, glaring down as the serpent twisted down into the pond with a playful thrill of its gills. The little witch humphed as she reached up to wipe the moisture from her face, revealing fish scales on the underside of her forearms, with two thin fins protruding out and ending at the elbows.

Another, older woman was practicing with an ancient instrument in another corner of the gardens, fingers flying across the keyholes as a reedy, haunting sound drifting in the air and seeking eager ears. Her face was less youthful than other Maleficar, the rare sight of the lines on her mouth and eyes telling him that she was ancient, even by their immortal standards. He had found her buried in an ancient tomb in the Middle East, older than even the civil war. After several millennia of magical exposure, the physical manifestations were strongest on her: horns sprouted from her forehead, each one directly above her eyes, curving upwards for several inches. Her ears poked out from her head, large and round like a doe, and her eyes were yellow with a vertical pupil.

Two more Maleficari rush by, twin sisters chasing each and laughing as their fox familiars scampered after them. Straight black hair flowed like a river of ink behind them, almond shaped eyes glittering with mischief. They had been tied up and buried alive in the mountains of Korea, the Dium Somnium kicking in by pure instinct and preserving them for centuries. They had fox ears, a gift from their daedra, and bright orange eyes that reflected light, just like their familiars.

At the edge of the garden stood the first of his allies, Anori, the woman he had unearthed in the church in Massachusetts. She stood at the silver-wrought gate that was merely a false door to the illusion of a world beyond the gardens. Klarion had based the pocket dimension on Arteminus, the capital of the Maleficar Imperium, to cast an illusion to make it seem like his gardens overlooked the ancient city. The crystal city floated in the distance, surrounded by satellite islands also tipped with estates and temples. The sky surrounding them was in a constant state of dusk, pink and orange and gold blending together like watercolors bleeding together on canvas.

Anori, _Dux Primus_ , a general of the Imperial army before the fall, stared at the illusion of her home, a sad and haunted look on her face. She had pale white hair, falling like silk down her back until the tips brushed her thighs. Her skin was just as pale, making her bright red eyes stand out in stark contrast. She would have been beautiful, save for the ugly scar that cut diagonally across her face, starting from the left side of her forehead, down across the bridge of her nose, and ending on the ridge of her right cheekbone. Her ears were pointed like an elf's, the edges pierced by little golden hoops that continued from the tips down to the earlobe. Her fingers were tipped with black nails that were naturally sharp and pointed, and when she spoke, he could see the flash of canine teeth.

"Klarion." She greeted him without turning around. She stood tall, taller than most men even, with her shoulders pulled back, posture straight, legs braced apart, hands clasped behind her back. Standing like a soldier.

"General." He nodded, Teekl meowing loudly in his own greeting.

She chuckled. "You are not old enough to have joined the army, child."

Klarion huffed at that, wrinkling his pert nose in indignation.

"You have created a wonderful refuge here." Anori mused as she looked away from what had been lost and looked back towards the gardens filled with the Maleficari that had awakened from the long dream.

"But it is not enough." Klarion said as he looked out into the illusion beyond and spied the beautiful city that had been the crown jewel of the Dominion.

"It will never be enough." Anori stated with a dark look. "The world belonged to us before it belonged to the humans. We will rebuild what we have lost. At any cost."

"I am at your disposal." Klarion bowed his head.

"No." He was startled at her negative reply. "You are the only one among us who knows the human world. You must take a position of leadership in this."

"But I am too young!" Klarion protested, though he was secretly pleased.

"This world has changed so much since I entered the dream." Anori sighed as she looked down into the boy's eyes. "And our forces are still quite small. We will need to strategize. There is no room for mistakes, this time."

"I know where we can find more of our people. Many more. All in one place." Klarion summoned Dr. Thompson's notes into his hands, ruffling through the papers. "The Templars split up the clues between their descendants and sent them off to explore new lands, hoping to keep the information scattered. Lucky for us, humans are curious creatures. I found a man that had managed to track down enough of the clues to decipher several of our resting places – yours included – as well as a… mass grave, of sorts."

"A mass grave?" Anori growled.

"I suspect most of them are merely in _Dium Somnium_." Klarion hummed.

"And where would it be located?" Anori asked him.

Klarion chuckled at the irony of it all. "Rome. The home of the Church itself."

She gave a wicked grin.

* * *

 **mmmmOER BAD GUYS!**

 **Elyon and Lyra will probably appear in the next chapter. Wondering where they've been? Cause I have too lol.**

 **Please leave a review!**


	8. Chapter 8 - Blending In?

**Omg. Look who's alive. Itsa me!**

 **I DON'T OWN NADA**

* * *

A week passed with no incident. The sudden lack of activity from Klarion made the team nervous, he was plotting something, they just knew it. Constantine had taken off, citing other magical problems in the world that he had to deal with, but assuring them that he would let them know if Klarion popped up again. But until that time came… they had nothing else to do.

"Well you can't just sit here watching the screen all day." Black Canary told them as she addressed the team sitting in the common room of Mount Justice, the teenagers absently watching the giant television sitting across from the sofa.

At the moment, some mind-numbing cartoon about a talking sponge was on the screen, though no one was really watching it. The blonde superhero frowned as they all barely acknowledged her, standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips as the teenagers tapped their phones or read a book, all the while glancing furtively at the alarm every few minutes or so.

The only ones talking were Napir and Richard, whom had stuck close to each other ever since the young warlock had arrived at the base, as Richard had taken it upon himself to teach the Maleficar about the modern world. They were sitting up at the bar counter connected to the kitchen, talking in low tones as they discussed modes of transportation among humans, and how humans had progressed from horse and carriage to petroleum powered machines like cars and planes. Richard had pulled up various websites and videos explaining how these machines worked on the laptop between them. He even printed out some blueprints of how trains, cars, and planes were built, the papers spread out on the counter between them as Napir studied them.

" _But why use petrol?"_ Napir asked, Zatanna's translation spell still in effect. _"Don't you humans know that it creates harmful gases?"_

"Well, uh, yeah…" Richard replied a bit bashfully. "I mean, no, we didn't know at first. It wasn't until these gas products were firmly established as a fuel source among humanity that our scientists could prove the negative effects of its biproducts."

" _But still you use them?"_ Napir asked incredulously, scowling. " _How foolish."_

"Hey now, we're trying to change that." Richard pointed out as he continued clicking and surfing on his computer, pulling up an article on alternative energy research for Napir to read. "But, well, people are stubborn."

" _Humans have always been afraid of change_." Napir agreed.

At least _someone_ was helping the poor kid out, Canary mused. She couldn't imagine awakening in the world after centuries of a magical coma only to find your entire people virtually wiped out, your empire erased from history.

She glanced over the two boys, noting their similarities. Both were tall and slim, well-muscled, with black hair and handsome features. Unlike Richard, however, Napir's hair was curly, the top half pulled up into a small bun, and rather than feminize him, it somehow made him more attractive. He was lightly tanned and a little broader in the shoulders than Richard. The witch boy seemed to be a little more serious than Richard, though his expression was usually neutral, the boy rarely smiled, and the friendliness rarely reached his eyes when he did. Richard often came of as flirtatious when he smiled, but Napir's came off as a little shy. He had a little scar on his lower lip, and another short one slicing through the end of one of his eyebrows, barely nicking the outer corner of his eye. No doubt it would make the ladies swoon. Canary wondered how he got them.

The two made a handsome pair. Canary already pitied the girls on the team. Her eyes fell to the clothes Napir was wearing, recognizing them as belonging to Richard. The t-shirt Napir was wearing was a little tight in the shoulders, and though Canary was sure that the girls appreciated the shoulder muscles pressing against the fabric (yes, she'd seen Zatanna giving the boy a once-over), it did not look very comfortable on the boy. Same with the sweatpants he was borrowing from Richard, which were also a little tighter than necessary.

"Alright, everyone up!" Canary ordered, grabbing the remote from the coffee table and turning off the television, ignoring the protesting whine from Wally. Canary turned and pointed at Napir. "Have you guys even taken this poor boy out of the base since his arrival?"

"Er… no…" Was the unanimous consensus.

Canary resisted the urge to throw up her hands in exasperation. "Well, the boy needs to be introduced to the modern world at _some_ point!" She glanced over the kids. "Shopping trip."

"I'm sorry – what?" Artemis questioned, looking a little alarmed.

"That boy doesn't even have his own wardrobe, and he can't keep borrowing ill-fitting clothing from Richard… no matter how much the ladies might appreciate it." Canary smirked at the blushes from both M'gann and Zatanna, Artemis coughing into her fist as her boyfriend sent her a suspicious look.

"And it will be the perfect opportunity to expose Napir to the human world." The blonde woman concluded, glancing over at Kaldur. "I'll have some funds transferred to the team's account."

"Shopping spree!" M'gann exclaimed excitedly.

"Shopping spree…" Artemis restated glumly, groaning at the thought. "I hate shopping…"

Napir glanced over at Richard with a confused expression. " _I don't understand what's going on."_ He stated with a vaguely confused expression.

Richard laughed sheepishly. "Oh, you will…" He glanced over at the beaming M'gann, who was exchanging an impish look with Zatanna, the two girls already plotting Napir's makeover. Richard patted Napir on the shoulder. "Good luck, my friend."

* * *

The team left an hour later to the mall downtown, this time dressed in civilian clothing. M'gann had already transformed to a more human appearance, her green skin turning white and hair taking on a more reddish hue. Napir seemed unsurprised by her transformation, making no comment and ignoring it altogether. Richard was wearing a pair of sunglasses to hide his identity… which Napir pointed out the futility of right away.

" _Do you seriously think those are enough to hide your face?"_ The witch boy deadpanned. Behind him, M'gann and Zatanna snickered.

Richard paused as he was about to get into the driver's seat of one of the cars the team was taking into the city. "Well, it's worked so far."

Napir blinked. _"…You humans really are dim."_

Richard wasn't sure if he should be offended by that statement or not as Napir walked around to the other side and gingerly got into the car, looking a little nervous as the human showed him how to buckle his seatbelt.

" _Are we expecting to crash?"_ Napir asked.

"No." Richard told him. "But it always helps to be safe."

The young warlock frowned in distaste as he turned his attention to the front window, Richard starting the engine as M'gann and Artemis climbing into the seats in the back. They began to slowly drive through the secret tunnel leading out of Mount Justice, and soon found themselves on the highway into the city, followed by another car with the other half of the team inside it.

"So…" Zatanna's voice interrupted the silence that had fallen over the four of them, save for the low murmur of the radio. "What can you tell us about magic?"

Both M'gann and Richard couldn't help but smile at Zatanna's predictable curiosity. Napir turned to look over his shoulder at the girl sitting in the seat behind Richard.

" _What do you want to know?"_ He asked.

"How does it work?" The young magician tilted her head and furrowed her brows. "I haven't actually seen you use magic, but we fought a Dreamer in Colombia and she didn't seem to use any chants or spells at all. Wordless magic is supposed to be very difficult and –"

" _You_ fought _one of my kind?"_ Napir exclaimed, looking suddenly worried as he glanced over to Richard with raised brows. " _How are you all still alive?"_

The other three took on slightly offended expressions.

"We aren't _that_ helpless!" The Martian protested, before a thoughtful look crossed her face. "Actually, yeah, she kicked our butts. But we're still alive, right?"

Napir shook his head. _"You are all very lucky. Maleficar are not known for their mercy."_

"Mercy?" Zatanna questioned.

" _We don't usually let our enemies live."_ The witch boy told them in a solemn voice. _"Why were you fighting her?"_

"Hey, _she_ attacked _us."_ M'gann sniffed, crossing her arms.

"Though to be fair," Richard spoke up, "Constantine said that it was because she was just very confused when she awoke. Guess I'd be on the offensive too if I woke up surrounded by people in masks and weapons."

" _Did you catch her name?"_ Napir asked.

"It started with an 'L'…" Zatanna murmured. "I didn't catch too much of what she was saying. My Latin is still a little rusty, and she definitely wasn't speaking true Latin."

" _Virmina_." The warlock corrected her.

Zatanna blinked. "What?"

" _Virmina is what we call our language."_ Napir told them. _"It is the predecessor to many human languages."_

"You mean we learned how to speak from you guys?" Zatanna gave him a doubtful look.

The witch boy shook his head. " _No, but given the hegemony of the Imperium, Virmina became the common trade tongue. Any human kingdom that wanted to trade with us picked up the language. Over time it supplanted many of their original languages."_

"Interesting." M'gann murmured. "I'll have to revisit my uncle's research on human culture and see what his notes say about the evolution of language in human history."

Napir turned the conversation back to the topic at hand. " _Like I said, you are lucky to be alive. Probably because she did not have much magic to spare."_

He glanced down at his hands, summoning just enough magic for his fingertips to glow blue. " _We are very weak when we awaken from the long dream. Dium Somnium takes a lot of magic to sustain, especially over the course of centuries. Even now, I am operating on ten percent or so, and I have had a week to recover. I imagine that the witch you fought was running on five percent or less."_

Zatanna and M'gann exchanged incredulous glances.

"Are you telling me that this girl kicked our butts with only ten percent of her power?" Zatanna squeaked. "How powerful is a Maleficar at one-hundred percent?"

" _The humans had a saying about us, long ago."_ Napir told them, " _They would say 'One witch is worth one army'. Of course, there is a vast difference in power between witches, especially if you compare a low-ranking witch, such as the Eru, to a high-ranking witch, such as the Elidhu."_

"The what now?" Zatanna blinked.

The young warlock sighed. " _Never mind that. Maleficari hierarchy is extensive and confusing. Just be more careful when approaching the Dreamers. You never know how powerful they might be."_

Richard glanced at Napir out of the corner of his eye. "And just how powerful can they get?" He asked, thinking of the worse-case scenario.

" _Among the Maleficari, there are various titles that may be earned in combat or by accomplishing great achievements. The most feared of these titles is rare, and only three witches have ever earned the title in our history."_ Napir met Richard's gaze. _"They are known as the God-Killers."_

* * *

They reached the mall within the hour, regrouping with the others once they had found spaces to park the cars.

" _I think I prefer the open-air markets of old."_ Napir murmured as they walked inside and he began to look around at the various stores. _"Although it is nice not to have a hundred vendors screaming at you all at once to buy their kumquats."_

"What the hell is a _kumquat_?" Wally whispered to Artemis, who shrugged and began to google it on her phone.

"First order of business." M'gann spun around to address the group, looking pointedly at Napir. "You need a whole new wardrobe. Let's start with the basics. T-shirts. Sweatpants. Jeans. Workout clothes. Two jackets and three pairs of shoes. You'll need a pair of tennis shoes, a pair of sandals, and a pair of formal shoes. Real leather, not synthetic. You'll need a matching formal outfit, of course, but we are not buying a tuxedo off the rack, oh no. We'll take you to a tailor to get one fitted for you."

"And a few nice button-down shirts, for semi-formal occasions." Zatanna nodded along with the Martian.

All the boys – plus Artemis – stared incredulously at the two girls.

"That's… a lot of basics…" Wally muttered, then spoke up. "Er, can't we just buy him, like, three outfits and be done with it?"

Zatanna and M'gann both turned on him with dirty looks.

"We will not allow you to turn this boy into a slob, Wally." Zatanna sniffed as M'gann grabbed Napir's hand and began to drag him towards the nearest department store.

" _Uh…?"_ Napir gave Richard a bewildered look over his shoulder as he was pulled away.

"Poor guy." Richard murmured as he smiled and waved the warlock goodbye. The other boys hummed in agreement.

Artemis glanced at her boyfriend. "Arcade?"

Wally sighed in relief. "Best girlfriend ever!" He smiled down at her as they split off from the group and made their way to the other end of the mall, the arcade located by the food court.

That left the other boys to their own devices.

"Er, shouldn't we go keep Napir company?" Connor asked, looking in the direction M'gann had dragged the young Maleficar off to. "Don't you think the girls might overwhelm him?"

"I'm not getting in the way of those two." Richard pushed his sunglasses up with a small smile. "Zatanna and M'gann are scary when they're shopping."

Kaldur and Connor exchanged furtive glances.

"I, uh, can't say that I'm eager to join them." Kal admitted solemnly.

Connor nodded. "I guess Napir is on his own."

The remaining three boys decided to walk around the mall a bit, before settling down at the food court and indulging in some ice cream. Connor and Kaldur were still getting used to human foods luxuries that weren't available in the Mount Justice kitchens, such as the banana-split ice cream deluxe they were currently sharing. Two bananas, three scoops of strawberry ice cream, smothered in chocolate syrup and topped with red cherries.

"I can taste the diabetes already." Richard chuckled as he used a spoon to cut off a piece of the banana and scooped it up with some chocolate-covered strawberry ice cream.

"It's so… sweet." Kal grimaced after his first bite. "I think I'll just stick with the chocolate and cherries." He muttered.

Connor had no such qualms, and with his superhuman metabolism, was busy inhaling the whole thing with not a care for the caloric intake.

"Slow down there, Superboy." Richard said. "It's not going anywhere."

Connor paused to lick some of the chocolate syrup that had gotten on his hand. "It's good. Why don't we serve this back at base?"

Richard laughed aloud. "Because Canary is a health freak and Batman would probably say these foods will make us fat and lazy."

"I doubt any of us have to worry about getting fat." Kal chuckled. "Superboy's got super-metabolism, I have Atlantean biology, and you train so often that you barely have a shred of fat on you."

"Won't stop Batman from criticizing." Richard pointed out as he went in for another scoop of ice cream.

"How did an easy-going kid like you end up with a cranky man like him?" Connor asked off-handedly as he finished off one of the bananas.

"Long story." Richard shrugged. "He's a good guy, he really is, he's just very… nihilistic."

Kaldur lifted a brow at Richard. "That's one way of putting it."

"WE'RE BAAAACK~!"

The boys turned around to see M'gann and Zatanna walk up to them with their hands laden with shopping bags. Napir followed some steps behind them, looking a little shell-shocked.

"Watch these, would you?" M'gann asked without waiting for an answer as she and Zatanna dropped a dozen bags or so at their feet and then immediately took off to buy some food.

Napir approached them as the boys glanced down at the bags in alarm.

"How much money did they spend?" Kal asked nervously, wondering how much of a dent those two girls had put in the team's funds. That money was supposed to last them until the end of the month and they still needed to work on repairs in the lower deck of the base.

"Don't ask." Richard answered as he took a sip of his soda and turned to beckon Napir to sit in the chair next to him. "So you've returned! How was your first time shopping in the human world?"

The witch boy slowly raised his gaze up to meet their eyes. " _Traitors."_ He hissed with narrowed eyes. " _Those girls treated me like some sort of doll! The ladies in waiting were even worse!"_

"Ladies in what?" Kal asked.

"They're called salesladies." Richard corrected him.

Napir shuddered. " _I think one of them touched my butt."_

Richard snorted into his drink while Kaldur smirked and tried not to snicker out loud.

"They did what?!" Connor asked with a raised brow.

" _Unfortunately, the girls would not let me punish the offender."_ Napir sighed as he stole Richard's drink and took a long gulp, making a weird face at the carbonated drink. _"What is this?"_

"It's called soda." Richard responded, snatching it back. "How did you mean to retaliate against this woman?"

" _Well I threatened to set her clothes on fire."_ Napir pouted. " _But Zatanna pulled me away and M'gann erased the woman's memory of the incident."_

The other boys stared at Napir in horror, Richard groaning and shaking his head. "Napir, you can't use your powers against civilians!"

" _This woman – a_ human _– touched me inappropriately."_ Napir shuddered. " _Don't I have the right to retaliate?"_

Kal frowned. "You may complain, certainly, but _setting someone on fire_ shouldn't be your first impulse!"

"And I thought I had anger issues…" Connor muttered as he finished off the last of the ice cream as the girls had joined them at the table with some hamburgers and fries.

"So, what have you guys been up to?" M'gann asked cheerfully as they sat down.

Kal turned to her with a serious expression. "Is it true that Napir tried to set someone on fire?"

The girls winced, which was answer enough. The Atlantean sighed and shook his head, praying to Poseidon for patience.

"Well," Richard quickly changed the subject, answering M'gann's question. "We walked around the mall bit, did some window shopping, then came here and had some ice cream."

"Oooh, was that the banana-split ice cream deluxe?" Zatanna's eyes got wide as she looked at the empty plastic container. "I always wanted to try it, but it's so big that I don't think I could ever finish it on my own."

"Where did Wally and Artemis go?" M'gann asked. Connor just pointed at the arcade. "Oh."

"Napir, have you ever eaten fries before?" Zatanna turned to the young warlock. When he shook his head, she wordlessly pushed her box of fries over to him as she bit into her burger.

Napir reached for one of the fries and held it up curiously, sniffing it before taking a small bite of one of the ends, chewing it thoughtfully before swallowing. " _It is… rather bland."_

"It tastes better with ketchup." Connor said as he pushed over a little cup of the red sauce.

"We should get Wally and Artemis and return to base." Kal told them all as Napir dipped his fry into the ketchup and took another bite. M'gann nodded and used her telepathic abilities to tell Artemis and Wally to meet them in the food court.

" _It is better."_ Napir decided as he finished off his fry with the ketchup. _"Though I miss my mother's cooking."_

The table fell into an awkward silence at that. They all knew better than to ask if Napir's mother was still alive, and the boy rarely talked about his family, not even mentioning his sister once in the time he had been with them.

" _What is this made from?"_ Napir asked, pointing at the fries.

"Potatoes." Richard told him, the tension at the table dissipating. "They are sliced and then fried."

The warlock gave the fries a vaguely interested glance. " _Hm."_

They all looked up as Wally and Artemis exited the arcade, smiling at each other and holding hands.

"They're so cute its almost sickening." Zatanna muttered as M'gann sighed dreamily, before glaring at Connor.

"Why don't you ever hold my hand?" She asked her kinda-boyfriend with narrowed eyes (they weren't official… yet).

Connor looked like a dear caught in the headlights. "Uh… I um…" He was saved from answering the question as Wally and Artemis approached the table.

"Hey guys – whoa, that's a lot of bags." Artemis winced at the evidence of M'gann and Zatanna's shopping spree, casting a pitying glance at Napir, who looked worn out from the process.

"We're, uh, ready to go." Wally said, also staring incredulously at the pile of shopping bags around the table.

Kal stood up, the rest of the team following his lead. "Alright, let's get these bags back to the cars."

Napir seemed confused when everyone bent down to help with the bags, each team member carrying at least two bags.

"Napir?" Richard asked him. "Aren't you going to help?"

" _What a waste of effort._ " Napir shook his head as he murmured under his breath and the bags disappeared.

"Wha – hey!" The others exclaimed.

" _I have already teleported them back to your mountain."_ Napir told them.

Kal sighed and cradles his forehead in his palm while the others winced and quickly glanced around them to see several of the civilians staring at them.

"Napir!" Zatanna hissed. "What did we say about using magic in public?!"

" _What's the point of having magic if you're not going to use it?"_ The witch boy tilted his head.

Zatanna shook her head. "Ugh!"

"Uh, guys, people are staring." Wally pointed out.

Richard grabbed a hold of Napir's arm and practically dragged him out of the food court. With annoyed huff, Kal turned and followed them towards the parking lot, the others hurrying after him.

* * *

 **Someone needs to give Napir a lesson in subtlety haha.**

 **Sorry for not updating in a while. This story is kinda low on my list of things to do at the moment. I'm really trying to update my other stories as well, so I'm a little all over the place in terms of updates.**

 **Please leave a review!**


	9. Chapter 9 - Terror Tussle

**Aaaaaand look it's a double update! Woohoo!**

* * *

As they pulled out of the parking lot, Napir cupped his chin in his hand as he leaned against the car window, staring out distantly as he ignoring M'gann and Zatanna's scolding. Something about responsibilities and secret identities and blah, blah, blah…

He studied the human city as it passed by, the metal buildings covered in glass, metal cars, metal poles, metal bridges… everything was metal.

 _The faeries must hate this…_ Napir mused, then a more sober thought occurred, _If they are still around._

His hazel eyes glinted orange and green as they searched the passing scenery for any sign of lingering magic in the world. Cars drove by in blurs of color, occasionally honking at one another. People walked down the sidewalk, a man talking into a little contraption in his hand, two girls giggling as they whispered in each other's ear, a mother pushing a stroller. The sun was bright on the harbor as they drove along the sea-wall, such a wonderful blue that he could almost ignore the ugly pollution that floated just out of sight.

 _Mana… where did all the mana go?_ Napir wondered, stretching out his senses, searching for the magic that once filled the world. He sensed a few lingering dots of mana throughout the city, but nothing particularly strong or dangerous – probably just magakin that chose to blend in with the humans.

His thoughts were interrupted when a loud beeping noise sounded from the dashboard, the three Young Justice members stiffening while Napir glanced at the screen of the car curiously.

" **Nightwing, this is Aqualad! Red tornado just called in from base."** The Atlantean's voice sounded across the speakers. **"We're needed back in the city, there's been an attack!"**

Nightwing glanced at Napir before nodding and responding, "Got it, send me the coordinates."

A map of the city appeared on the screen of the car, a red dot blinking on what Napir assumed was their new destination.

"What's going on?" Zatanna asked as Richard turned the car around and M'gann leaned forward in her seat to read the mission details Red Tornado had sent them off the screen in the center console of the car.

"Looks like the Terror Twins managed to get out of jail again." M'gann sighed in exasperation. She turned her attention to Napir, explaining, "They're metahumans – I mean, uh, they are humans with superpowers."

The young warlock raised his eyebrows. " _Powers but no magic_?"

"No." Richard interjected, then muttered, "Don't suppose the X-gene popped up during your time. Remind me to explain what mutants are to you when we get back to base."

"Anyway," M'gann continued, "They aren't _super_ evil, just a general nuisance. They like to destroy things. Their powers include super strength, super endurance, and they can jump high enough to punch Superboy in mid-flight."

"Wait, why are you telling him all this?" Zatanna asked, then her eyes widened. "You're not seriously asking him to fight with us?" She glanced between Richard and M'gann. "We've never trained with him before! We don't know what he's capable of!"

"While Kaldur didn't explicitly say whether he was or wasn't," Richard said as he glanced over at Napir, "Why don't you sit this one out and watch us fight? Y'know, try to get a feel of the team?"

The witch boy shrugged. " _It would be interesting to watch."_

They found the Terror Twins just outside the downtown area, following a path of destruction they had left in their wake, fallen street lights, crushed buildings, and craters in the ground. They arrived to find the other half of the team had already engaged the two enemies, Aqualad and Superboy fighting with Tommy Terror while Artemis and Wally engaged Tuppence Terror.

Napir hardly blinked as M'gann shifted back to green skin and into her supersuit, fading through the car ceiling before the others had a chance to even open the doors and flying towards the male Terror twin to help Superboy and Aqualad. Zatanna popped out of the car as soon as Richard put it into park, the witch boy raising an eyebrow as Richard tore off his clothes to reveal the suit underneath and plastered his mask onto his face.

" _You look ridiculous."_ He commented.

"Not now!" Nightwing said quickly as he buckled his weapons pouch around his waist and headed off to join the fight.

Napir got out of the car as well, at a more sedate pace, leaning against the hood as he watched the team commence their fight. They weren't horrible, he supposed, studying their fighting styles and team cohesion. They fought well together, evidence of years of cooperation, predicting each other's moves and working as a unit rather than separate entities. He did see one problem, however – their fighting movements were all remarkably similar. He could tell that they had the same sparring instructor at some point, which made them all terribly predictable.

His gaze fell on their foes, the two known as the Terror Twins. Brother and sister, obviously, not only from their names, but also in their incredible likeness to each other. They fought with raw strength and anger, making them vulnerable to more cunning fighters and quick to tire. It was like watching a bar brawl, no finesse at all.

Superboy landed a punch on Tommy's face, sending the boy flying backwards and into a building. Across the street, his sister screamed in rage and batted away Kid Flash as she charged over to where her brother was sprawled across a pile of rubble, engaging Superboy in an arm lock to protect Tommy while he regained his bearings.

" _Siblings are rare among our kind."_ The voice of one of his clan elders echoes in his head, the old woman chuckling in a rare show of her excitement. _"You and your sister will be a team. And one day, a force to be reckoned with!"_

 _Nazidha._ He pursed his lips and looked down at his hands clasped in his lap, ignoring the faint trembling of the ground as Aqualad went flying into a streetlight.

 _I miss you, sister._ Napir tapped into his magic and felt it swirl in his veins. He and his sister had similar magical signatures, and he could feel the distant echo of her in his own magic.

"Watch out!"

He glanced up to see Tuppence Terror come flying at him, a snarl on her face.

 _Now that's not very good etiquette._ Napir thought as he mumbled a spell and held up his hand, a large circular diagram appearing in front of him and acting as a force field as the girl slammed into it fruitlessly.

Napir made eye contact with the blonde through the glowing lines of the shield, tilting his head. " _I wasn't aware that we were fighting_."

"Ya think I care?!" Tuppence growled in a thick southern accent as she reeled her fist back and punched his shield again.

" _It's futile_." The warlock sighed, vaguely annoyed at her insistence and wondering why the others hadn't come to retrieve this girl yet.

She growled in frustration. "Everythin' has a breaking point!"

Napir smirked and crossed his arms and legs as he leaned further back onto the hood of Richard's car. " _Unless you have a hundred-ton demon hiding somewhere around here, that thing isn't breaking_."

His smirk seemed to enrage her even more, but before she could say anything more, Tommy's yell echoed across the street. They both turned their attention to see him struggling under the combined attacks of the Young Justice team.

Napir smirked, and seeing that the others had the right well in hand, decided to have some fun with the little mortal. He turned back to her with a dangerous grin. Tuppence paused at the sudden change in the boy's demeanor, his aura becoming colder, more dangerous.

" _At least your brother can hold off several enemies at once."_ The warlock taunted. _"You must be pretty weak if you can't even take on one man."_

That did it. He saw her crack, the anger filling her eyes as she lost control and snarled at him. "Ya little shit!" She continued hitting the magical barrier with renewed vigor.

Napir yawned.

This time Tuppence screamed in outrage, finally deciding to forgo punching the shield, and stomped the ground hard enough to cause a strong tremor, hoping to catch her opponent off balance. She grinned as his eyes widened and he wobbled, the magical barrier flickering in nothingness.

"Eat shit!" Tuppence exclaimed victoriously as she sent a punch towards his face. Just as she thought she felt it make contact, however, the world seemed to stutter, _tilted,_ and then –

"Oof!" She found herself flying sideways into a powerline, knocking the air out of her lungs. Tuppence quickly got to her feet, staring incredulously at the boy. How did he get behind her?

" _Well at least you figured out that you weren't going to crack that shield_." He commented off-handedly. " _Maybe you do have a brain. A small one at least."_

She stood up slowly, a little more wary of the strange kid that had arrived with the Young Justice team. Tuppence eyed him, noting the civilian clothing and his lack of self-righteousness. Was he supposed to be part of the team? He hadn't tried to help them earlier…

" _I'm not supposed to use my powers against mortals."_ He told her. _"But don't worry, I won't need any of them to defeat you."_

Her nostrils flared in anger. "One way or another, boy," She snarled, "I'm gonna break your pretty face."

Napir's lips tilted in a sardonic smirk. " _So, you think I'm pretty?"_

She practically screamed as she attacked him.

Meanwhile, the Young Justice team had managed to subdue Tommy Terror and put an inhibitor collar on the angry young metahuman. It took them a moment to realize that the boy's sister was missing, and following Tommy's gaze, found Tuppence terror engaged in a game of cat and mouse with Napir.

"I thought he was supposed to stay out of the fight?" Zatanna asked in exasperation.

"Mah sis probably attacked him first." Tommy commented, much to their surprise. He met their shocked looks with a shrug. "What? She hates pretty boys."

It looked like a rather unfair fight, with Tuppence swinging wildly at Napir, who would dodge her hits a few times before giving her an opening. But every time it looked like Tuppence might land a hit, he flickered out of existence, teleporting behind her and attacking her half-heartedly.

"He's toying with her." Aqualad stated with a disproving frown.

Nightwing broke off from the main group to approach the two, sighing heavily at Napir's antics. Sure, he teased his enemies from time to time, but Napir was just being mean at this point.

"Napir," Nightwing yelled as he got as close as he dared to the fight. "That's enough."

The witch boy glanced up at his voice, and attempting taking advantage of the distraction, Tuppence sent a sidekick towards his face. Almost lazily, Napir grabbed her leg and practically tossed her over his should, all the while keeping eye contact with Nightwing and sending him a teasing grin.

" _Oh come on, I was getting bored_." The warlock complained.

Nightwing sent him a harsh glare.

Napir sighed as he ducked to avoid Tuppence, who had attempted to tackle him from behind, allowing her to sail over his head. She landed in a forward roll and popped back to her feet, spinning around with her fists up.

" _Mother always told us not to play with our food._ " He hummed as he actually engaged her in hand-to-hand, now on the offensive.

Now that he was actually attacking her, Tuppence was starting to realize that this boy was out of her league. He was _fast_ – she would block one hit only for another to blindside her not even a second later. And he hit _hard_ – she was already tired from the fight before, but now that the annoying brat was actually putting effort into their fight, she was losing count of how many bruises she would have after this.

Tuppence grunted as she took a hit to the abdomen, surprised when she felt blood in her mouth, blocked his knee to her face only to feel his fist collide with her jaw in an uppercut, sending her flying backwards. Before she hit anything, however, Napir teleported to her side, grabbed her by the face, and ruthlessly slammed her head into the pavement below.

There was a stretch of silence as their audience stared at him in various degrees of shock and horror at his casual violence.

Napir turned around, taking in their expressions. " _Should I kill her now?_ "

"NO!" They all screamed.

Nightwing ran up to the unconscious Tuppence and quickly pulled out an inhibitor collar, wrapping it around her neck until the ends clicked together.

" _Why_ would you want to kill her?" Miss Martian exclaimed as she floated up to him, Nightwing picking up Tuppence to carry her over to with Superboy and Aqualad. Tommy was handcuffed and on his knees as the two superheroes stood over him, watching his sister with uncharacteristic worry.

"I thought y'all were supposed to be the good guys." Tommy glared up at them as Nightwing set his sister down next to him, edging closer to Tuppence to get a view of her injuries. "Y'all ain't supposed to kill!"

"Yet you don't have any qualms about it…" Superboy muttered, rolling his eyes. Not that he actually wanted the poor girl dead, but it was pretty hypocritical coming from a villain.

"Our, uh, friend is still learning." Nightwing muttered as he straightened up.

Aqualad was already marching over to Napir, the tense set of his shoulders telling them that he was very, very angry.

"What. Was. That." The Atlantean demanded as he approached Napir, who already looked bored and ignoring Miss Martian and her reprimanding.

" _She came at me with the intent to kill. I responded in kind."_ Napir told him, not an inkling of remorse on his face. " _I do not see why you are angry. Surely this is how battles are fought in your world? Aren't you soldiers?"_

"We are _heroes_." Aqualad emphasized. "And we do not kill!"

" _Aren't heroes and soldiers the same thing in most cultures?"_ Napir asked, then added, " _It is foolish to leave your enemies alive. It will only encourage them to retaliate. Never leave an enemy at your back. Sever your loose ends."_

"No." Aqualad shook his head. "The difference between us and _them_ is mercy! We will not to stoop to their level."

" _Well that takes all the fun out of things, now doesn't it?"_ Napir muttered, crossing his arms and looking away. _"Killing is what I do best!"_

"What?!" Miss Martian asked worriedly. "Have you killed before?"

The warlock blinked. " _Why of course. I was a soldier in the Imperial army."_

M'gann pulled back from the boy, staring at him in horror.

"Oh dear." Nightwing muttered as he walked up behind Aqualad, putting his hand on the Atlantean's shoulder, leaning in to whisper, "We should get these two back to jail and return to base."

Aqualad nodded, sending Napir a stern look. "We will deal with this issue later."

They never got the chance to, however, as the ground started shaking, the skies darkened to black, and a circle of gold light appeared above their heads. The winds picked up, a strange humming noise filled the air, and, most curiously, white feathers began to fall. The air was strangely heavy, dulling their senses as a figure appeared within the light.

" _Blast and damnation!"_ Napir swore as he glared up into the light, falling into a defensive stance and summoning his magic until his whole body glittered with it.

"W-What's going on?!" Miss Martian exclaimed as the others pulled their weapons back out.

Napir's eyes glowed orange as he stepped forward and growled, " _Hunters."_

* * *

 **Alright, next up is a pretty big chapter. I should get it out to you guys soon!**

 **Please leave a review!**


	10. Chapter 10 - Unexpected Visitors

***tiptoes into the room***

 **I'll just leave this here...**

 ***tiptoes out of the room***

* * *

"The humans have made the world ugly."

Lyra sneered in disgust as she stared out of the window of a New York high-rise, the sound of clanking metal filling the air from behind her. The witch turned around to join Elyon next to a table filled with strange and unidentifiable instruments and papers covered in scribbles and diagrams scattered about.

"How could it have come to this? The land, the seas, the very air is filled with their poison!" Lyra huffed as she leaned against the table and watched Elyon fiddle with one of the instruments. "I can barely walk outside without choking!"

"You get used to it." Elyon absently as she tapped a spherical object floating in her hands, a metallic orb as large as her head and glowing lines like blood vessels sprawling across its surface. It was Maleficari technology, a tool to map the mana lines flowing through the earth. Elyon, once a noted scholar among their kind, had had one of the most advanced research labs throughout the Imperium, and had preserved much of it after the Fall. Hers were probably the only Maleficari artifacts left in this world, and in top working condition too.

"What happened to the other _magakin_?" The tanned witch wondered aloud. "The fae would never have let the humans spread their metal cities to such lengths. Where are they? The shifters? And the beasts?"

"You always preferred beasts to people." Elyon chuckled as she tapped another glass object, causing it to beep and flicker with lights. A sad expression crossed her face.

Lyra went cold. "Don't tell me…"

"Many creatures were hunted to near extinction, but don't worry, some survived." Elyon assured her. "When it became apparent that the humans were unstoppable in their evolution, the fae crafted a new dimension for themselves, and all the other magakin facing annihilation at the hands of the mortals."

"Well, that certainly explains why magic disappeared so quickly from the earth in only a few centuries." Lyra muttered. "I entered Dium Somnium little more than six-hundred years ago. I didn't remember the magic being so low when I was still awake."

"The majority left around the 1700's. There are still strongholds, of course." The blonde witch hummed. "Magical sanctuaries hidden throughout the world, hidden from mortal eyes. But the beasts could not hide, especially larger creatures like dragons or giants. They kept running into humans."

Lyra sighed in disappointment.

"Some, a few of the fae and shifters, chose to integrate with human society, keeping their powers a secret, of course." Elyon continued. "But human pollution had a particularly negative impact on those with the earth affinity. Most chose to leave."

Silence reigned as Lyra digested the new information, turning to leave the room. Elyon would not find it rude, she was more distracted by her gadgets anyway. Following the sound of clanking metal, Lyra wandered into the kitchen and left Elyon to her work. The sources of the metal clanking noises were made evident when she walked in and past the various pots and pans and other utensils floating around the kitchen as a team of five pixies cooked them dinner.

Pixies were little more than eight inches tall or so, a sub-species of fae that were capable of a modest amount of magic. They usually specialized in plant-based magic, though they could also levitate objects and use minor curses. Elyon had befriended this little tribe of pixies when she was living in the Bay Area, having rescued them from a pack of wild dogs trying to eat them. Since then, the pixies stuck around, often helping the witch with chores around the house while she did her research.

They were vaguely humanoid in nature, slim but sexless in that they did not appear to be male or female, and their heads a little bigger than their bodies with big round eyes, making them look childish. They had pointed ears that often stuck out from their hair, with feline eyes that reflected light. Their skin was usually pastel-colored in greens, pinks, yellows and blues, their hair just as varied in color. Their wings were insect-like, some resembling butterflies while others resembled dragonflies, thin iridescent membrane stretching across paper-thin bones.

"Hello my lady!" The pixies chorused in their lilting voices as she entered the kitchen.

"Hello little ones." Lyra smiled softly as she deftly avoided a floating spice bottle that a pixie was flying from the cabinet over to the stove, adding a dash of rosemary to the pot. "What are you making?"

"Chicken pot pie!" One of the pixies answered with a high-pitched giggle, pale green with dragonfly wings, with blue hair falling down her back between her wings. "It's a dish from our homeland!"

The witch blinked, trying to remember what the humans called it these days. "You mean… uh Albion?"

"Not anymore." Another pixie answered, this one fluttering her wings as she came to hover in front of Lyra's face. This one was rather portly with ladybug wings, with pinkish skin and a tuft of black hair on her head. "The humans call it England now. Or Britain. Or the United Kingdom. So many names!"

"Ugh!" A blue pixie huffed, standing on the counter next to the stove as she stirred the pot with a spoon. She had white moth wings and curly white hair, her ears twitching in annoyance as she wrinkled her nose and scoffed, "No power in human names! They take the magic out of everything!"

Lyra chuckled in agreement as she grabbed an apple from the refrigerator – at least some things never changed – and headed back to the living room of the condo, which had been renovated into a large laboratory at some point in time, when Elyon had bought it.

As an immortal, Elyon had spent many years accumulating wealth and she did not survive the witch hunts by remaining idle. She had safehouses around the world, and contacts among both the human and magical societies.

A week after she had appeared in Elyon's apartment in San Francisco they had fled to New York, knowing that the magical signature left by Lyra's teleportation from Colombia to California would be drawing the attention of every magakin on the continent. Lyra still wasn't quite sure how she had managed it, to be honest. Teleportation without an anchor was not only extremely dangerous but also cost a lot of mana, especially when jumping continents.

A week later and Lyra's mana levels were _still_ low.

Further evidence of how much of the world the humans were destroying. They had purged magic from the world by hunting down the magakin – the faer, the shifters, and all other manner of magical beings. As magic died in the world, it was harder for magical creatures to draw upon what was left of it.

Not to mention Lyra was starting from square one in terms of magical prowess. Not only was she low on mana, but her reserves were smaller, her body was out of shape, and she had no idea if her daedra would answer their summons if she called them. She had slept for centuries on earth, and there was no telling how long it had been for them. Time ran differently between the realities of _Terramun_ and _Inferno,_ and daedra were notoriously fickle creatures.

Not to mention she had no weapons.

Lyra cursed at the thought as a frown settled upon her lips, biting into her apple and gnashing the fruit between her teeth with unnecessary force. She really missed her halberd, and the weight of the double-bladed staff against her back. She could use other weapons, of course. Lyra had quite the stockpile in a pocket dimension she had created during the last war, but that dimension was tied to _Mictlan_ , part of the fifth plane of Inferno. Until Lyra had reestablished her connection to her summons, she would not have full access to her Infernal gifts.

Which meant she was practically helpless at the moment.

It drove her mad.

Coming back to the makeshift laboratory, Lyra leaned against the wall and continued to munch on her apple as she waited for Elyon's attention. She was always at a loss of what to do these days, and usually waited for Elyon to give her direction.

Before the fall of the Imperium, Lyra's place in the world had been assured. She had been a soldier. She had loyalties to the Pharis, to the empire, and to her fellow soldiers. She had been a talented warrior too, earning fame and titles. The structure of the military and the call of duty paved a path for her to follow, a steady regimen that told her what to do and where to go.

Now, she was lost. She looked into the future and saw nothing. She woke up in the morning and didn't know what to do. She had to reason to get out of bed, no reason to wake at all, really. Everyone she had ever loved was dead.

Nowadays, getting out of bed was merely a habit.

Lyra glanced over at Elyon once more, who was still immersed in her studies. This time, the pale-blonde witch was messing with a large floating map, similar to a hologram except it was tangible and responded to touch. From where Lyra stood, it looked like a map of the Trinity, the three realms of existence. The earth, Terramun, sat in the middle, while the other realms, shaped like a flat circle, circled around it in uneven orbits, sometimes crossing over Terramun and passing through it, causing the sphere to ripple.

Lyra contemplated the holographic image of the planet. It was so very different from the images of the earth she had seen in her youth. New lands had risen where there had once been ocean… and others had fallen, like her own beautiful kingdom, resting at the bottom of the oceans, their wondrous and magical secrets buried with them.

She wondered, for a second, if there would ever be a place for her in this world again.

The emptiness in her heart answered those thoughts.

* * *

" _Hunters._ "

The creature that descended from the circle of light was like nothing they had ever seen before. It looked like a bird…man…thing. Standing on two legs with digitigrade hindquarters and covered in feather down, legs bent and heel raised up like a bird, it had tri-pronged feet that were tipped with long, curved talons that were at least six inches long or more.

Its torso was that of a man, but still covered in a thin coat of white downy fur, with muscular arms that ended in an appendage that seemed to be a cross between a human hand and a bird claw, with four fingers tipped with sharp claws. Then it went back to being more birdlike, with an elongated curved neck and an eagle-like face, it's beak colored bright red and gave off a metallic sheen.

The top half of its beak seemed to extend all the way to the back of its head, like a biological helmet, coming to a point at the back of its head as it dips and then curves upward slightly so that it looked like a curling wave from the side. Two beady eyes gazing out from just underneath the edges, hooded and impassive, completely black and without irises. Oddly enough, the creature wore a leather skirt around its waist, like those that the Roman gladiators once wore, the strips of leather dotted with brass bolts.

Most striking, perhaps, were the two white wings which sprouted from its back, the edges of the feathers glinting golden. They were as long as the creature was tall at about eight feet, and clearly meant for flight.

It blinked once, twice, and then cocked its head like a bird as it's gaze honed in on Napir.

" **Maleficar."** A deep, guttural voice growled.

The Young Justice team members gasped.

"It can talk?!" Kid Flash whispered loudly, voice rising in pitch.

" **Elasa trian noan teloch!"** It snarled as it flared its wings and widened its stance, opening its mouth just enough for them to see the rows of small serrated teeth lining the beak, baring its teeth at the witch boy.

" _Just as ugly as I remember."_ Napir said dryly, a small whirlwind surrounding him as magic leaked out of his body. He leveled the creature with narrowed eyes. " _I'm not planning on dying again any time soon, birdface. You'll have to cut me to pieces before I go back to sleep!"_

It lunged, swiping its claws at the warlock, moving so fast that the heroes barely had time to blink before Napir and the creature were colliding, Napir standing his ground as he conjured a barrier between himself and the winged monster. The glowing lines of the floating diagram flared as claws tore into the invisible wall – _BOOM! –_ the impact creating a shock wave that made everything around them tremble, the members of Young Justice stumbling as the ground quaked.

"Oi, get us outta here!" Tommy Terror yelled in a pitched voice, fear evident on his face as he knelt, still handcuffed, next to his unconscious sister. "I ain't stickin' round for this!"

Aqualad nodded in agreement. "Superboy, Wally, grab those two and get them out of here." He turned to the others. "Surround that… thing. Be ready to help if Napir needs it!"

As the team fanned out around the now thoroughly destroyed city intersection, Superboy grabbed Tommy Terror under his armpits and jumped into the sky, while Wally pulled Tuppence Terror into his arms – silently thanking Napir that the cranky woman was knocked out – and sped off in the direction of Superboy and the nearest police station.

Meanwhile, Napir and the winged monster began trading blows, each hit becoming faster and faster until the team only saw blurs of movement.

"Whoa." Artemis muttered, her bowstring taught, though she dare not aim in the direction of the fight in case she hit Napir, "He's almost as fast as Kid Flash."

"He's using the same technique as that girl in Colombia!" Zatanna exclaimed. "Using magic to enhance his physical abilities!"

"Then his normal abilities must be off the charts, even without magic." Nightwing said with a glimmer in his eye.

Zatanna glanced at him with an exasperated look. "You want to fight him, don't you?"

Nightwing just smiled.

" _Argh!"_

They turned their attention back to the fight just in time to see Napir take a hit to his side, flying into a building. Just as he was about to hit it, however, the world around them seemed to stutter, like someone had hit pause and then play again, and Napir appeared across the intersection next to a fallen street light. The glow of the light highlighted the shadows under his eyes and the grim line of his mouth. He was still standing, but panting and clearly losing steam.

"He needs help!" Miss Martian worried.

" _No!"_ Napir growled, surprising them that he was even listening while an eight-foot tall birdman attacked him. _"This doesn't concern your kind!"_

As if to contradict his statement, three more circles of light appeared in the sky, widening as three more winged monsters dropped out of the portals, landing on the concrete with a low rumble _._ They were armed this time, one wielding a sword nearly as tall as a man, the other two wielding halberds.

" _Goddess._ " Napir swore. _"Guess there's no holding back now."_

"You were holding back?!" Artemis griped as she shot three arrows at one of the new arrivals. Then her vision faltered, _tilted_ , she blinked and found herself staring at her arrows sitting neatly in the creature's claws. "Did that bastard just _catch_ my arrows?!" She asked in outrage.

The monster roared in response and leapt across the street at her.

"Everyone!" Aqualad yelled. "Look out!"

Artemis felt the blade of the monster's giant sword nick her shoulder as she dropped and rolled away, hearing the air whistle as the blade sliced downwards. By the time she popped up the blade was coming at her face again, and she thought it might actually hit her, but then something wet wrapped around her waist and pulled her out of the way just in time. She landed next to Aqualad, his water-bearers unravelling around her waist, and then solidified into a sword and shield in his hands.

The bird-creature shrieked as it charged at the Atlantean, swinging its sword in a downward slice. Aqualad held up his water shield to catch it, but was truly shocked at the force of the blow, gritting his teeth and digging his feet into the ground, the stone cracking beneath his feet from the weight.

"Nrgh! It's… strong…" Aqualad grunted as he pushed the creature off and attempted to stab it with his own sword, only for the winged monster to parry his blows as easily as if it were sparring with a child.

Meanwhile, Zatanna and Miss Martian were struggling to fend off one of the other creatures. It had engaged the Martian in battle from above, swooping down on her in the air. She tried to dodge its attacks as fast as she could, but she was no match for its speed, and she could only fly as fast as her thoughts would allow her. Then birdman caught Miss Martian off guard, shooting towards her and then halting abruptly in midair, snapping its wings open to create a gale wind that sent her flying head over heels. Miss Martian had only just managed to right herself when she felt its talons ripping into her back as it kicked her, sending her flying to the ground, landing with a hard _bam!_

"M'gann!" Zatanna gasped, turning to the creature with narrowed eyes, holding up her arm as she chanted, "Gniylf pots!"

The creature paused.

"Gniylf pots!" She tried again.

She saw the air shimmer around the winged monster for a second, making it tilt its head in confusion, before it seemed to shrug off her magic and focus on her with a baleful glare.

"What? It didn't… my magic didn't…" Zatanna was so shocked that she was unprepared for the creature to swing at her, saved only by Nightwing tackling her out of the way.

"Keep moving!" He yelled at her as he pulled the young magician back to her feet and pushed her in the direction of Miss Martian, who was lying unconscious on the ground. Then he spun around to dodge the blade of the creature's halberd, stepping to the side as his eskrima sticks appeared in his hands and he engaged the winged creature in a game of hit-and-dodge.

The creature soon proved itself to be of superior speed, however, as Nightwing found himself on the wrong end of a very brutal beating. He lost his weapons at some point, and was simply trying not to be hacked to pieces in between getting punched and sliced with the birdman's talons.

"Need help?"

A yellow blur came charging in, smacking into the winged monster and sending it reeling back, though to their amazement, it didn't lose its footing. Kid Flash appeared next to Nightwing, glancing at his torn costume and the gashes on his torso worriedly. "Tough huh?"

"Don't take your eyes off it!" Nightwing hissed, ignoring the blood seeping from his side as he straightened and fell into a defensive stance. "These guys are as fast as you!"

"Well that's not good." Kid Flash muttered as he and Nightwing teamed up against the strange creature.

Superboy had returned as well, just as the creature with the ridiculously large sword broke through Aqualad's shield and sent the Atlantean flying into a tree, then grabbing Artemis by the throat and holding her up in the air as its claws pierced her skin.

"Let her go!" Superboy snarled as he leapt over to them and landed a hammer kick on the monster's arm, forcing it to let go of Artemis. He spun around to punch the birdman, only to gasp as the sword impaled his torso.

"No!" Artemis cried. "Superboy!"

Zatanna stumbled over to Miss Martian, mind still reeling, wondering what the _hell_ was going on and how they could possibly win this fight.

"M'gann!" She hissed as she knelt next to her friend, shaking her by the shoulders. Zatanna glanced up to see Aqualad and Artemis barely holding their own against one of the creatures, then to Nightwing and Kid Flash, who were on the defensive and barely able to dodge most of the time. "M'gann! Wake up!"

When the Martian didn't wake, she took a deep breath before hissing, "Pu ekaw!"

Miss Martian sat up with a gasp, Zatanna catching her by the shoulders and snapping her fingers in her face. "You up?

"Y-Yeah…" Miss Martian winced, rubbing her head. "I can feel the bump forming already…" Then she seemed to remember that they were in the middle of a fight and glanced around with wide eyes.

Zatanna glanced up again and her breath caught at the sight of Napir, facing down two of the birdmen.

The warlock was struggling, she could tell, but not nearly as in bad shape as the others. His skin was glowing now as magic roiled just beneath his skin, his eyes glowing orange. The fighting had caused his hair to come undone, the curls floating around his head like a halo. Watching him fight the two winged monsters was like watching a fight scene with someone tapping the fast forward button. The creatures would land a hit on him, only for her vision to flicker, and then he was attacking them from a completely different direction.

He blocked their hits with small force fields, circular diagrams the size of dinner plates blooming from his fingers as he tapped the weapons that were aimed at him, the blades bounding off the magical shields. Then he ducked into a punch, the magic in his fist sending the creature flying backwards into its partner, bowling it over and sending the two birdmen into a pile of feathers and metal.

" _Time to clean up this mess."_ Napir stood up straight and spread his arms wide. _**"A GRAA ORPHEUS!"**_

The world shook again, and not only did the sky darken even further, but all the lights on the street flickered and went out. The wind picked up and made an ominous moaning noise as it swirled around the Maleficar, and then the ground beneath his feet began to crack, erupting into fissures, malevolent red light seeping through the rifts.

Then Zatanna realized that the tremors weren't from the ground fracturing, but it was a _growl_.

* * *

"Anything?" Lyra asked as Elyon reached down to make quick scratches on her notes.

"I'm worried about the effect of the Awakening on the world." Elyon mumbled quickly as she wrote something down on a piece of paper. "As more magical beings reemerge – and powerful ones at that – the more magic will seep back into this world."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Lyra asked as she bit into her apple.

"Yes and no." Elyon answered. "The mana lines are already shifting, growing." She nodded at the spherical object she had been holding before that was pulsing with glowing lines. "The other magakin have no doubt already noticed."

Lyra picked up the sphere and brought it up to eye-level, eyeing it. "Do you think they will cause a problem?"

"For us, no." Elyon shook her head. "Even if the Maleficari are just a myth to most magical societies today, they are not stupid enough to get in the middle of a war between two factions of extremely powerful magic-users." She stopped writing and began to nibble at the end of the pen she had been writing with. "However, with the return of magic to the world, many magakin will be getting a power boost. They might decide to cause trouble."

"And why is that our problem?" Lyra asked in an amused voice, crossing her arms and leaning her hip against the table. "Since when do you care about the mortals?"

Elyon's lips twitched downward, which as all but a full-on scowl from the older witch.

Not knowing how to interpret the expression, Lyra put the instrument she was holding back onto the table and took another bite from her apple. "What about these 'superheroes' that you've told me about? Aren't they supposed to protect humanity?"

"They've fought magakin before, 'tis true." Elyon conceded. "But this time will be different. Because the Maleficari are awakening, magic is returning to the world en masse. I doubt they have anyone among their number that can face the rising tide."

Lyra resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Elyon- _dah_ , we have other problems to worry about." Lyra admonished her. "Like the bastards that put me in that goddamn crypt, for one. Those _Solasari_." She spat, angrily chomping at her apple.

"I haven't heard anything about them in years." Elyon muttered. "The last witch hunt I heard about was in the 1920's."

"That doesn't make me feel secure." Lyra growled, absently rubbing her stab wounds, now fully healed. "They were always good at hiding. There's no way they decided to just retire, and I doubt we are lucky enough for them to have died out."

"Probably not." Elyon agreed. "More than likely, they are still manipulating the human kingdoms from the shadows, as they have always done throughout history."

"No doubt they are already aware of the Dreamers awakening." Lyra said in the low voice, narrowing her eyes. "They'll come for all of us."

They both paused as the world quaked. Normal humans would not have felt it, but they knew that every magical being on the east coast had probably sensed it, the mana lines in and around the northeast were bulging and rippling as something _big_ pulled on their power.

Lyra's eyes got big. "Was that –"

"I sense Solasari magic." Elyon narrowed her eyes. "But more importantly, I sense _our_ magic… someone is summoning their daedra."

Nothing more needed to be said as the two witches disappeared from the room with nary a whisper, the papers on the table fluttering as the air shifted.

* * *

Claws poked through the fissures at Napir's feet, curling over the edges until she could see the knuckles of long, sickly thin fingers curl over the edges, skeletal with pitch black skin draped across the bones and nothing else. They were monolithic in size and could probably fit a small car in their palms. Ruby-colored nails – well, long enough to be claws, really – scraped against the surface of the ground, leaving long grooves in the pavement, as if Hades himself was attempting to crack the world open from within.

The battlefield seemed to freeze for a split second, and then chaos broke loose.

The winged creatures all shrieked at once, abandoning their opponents to attack Napir altogether, four giant winged monsters descending on the young warlock with their weapons raised.

"Napir!" Several of the team members cried in warning, but the boy did not move, seemingly frozen by his spell.

They needn't have worried, it turned out, because as soon as the creatures were within range, one of those emaciated hands shot out of the rift, bones and sinewy muscles visibly rippling underneath ebony skin. Two of the birdmen screeched as they were caught in a vice, looking like little dolls in the grasp of the ridiculously large and monstrous hands, which squeezed them until the claws pierced their torsos, making them scream as blue blood began to flow from the winged creatures.

"Oh… my god…" Someone on the team whispered fearfully.

The remaining two birdmen squawked as they flapped their wings and pulled away from Napir, hovering in the air just out of range of the demonic hands. Things got worse when Napir stumbled, and then fell to his knees, eyes still glowing and distant. Zatanna didn't have to be an expert to know that he was losing control of the spell.

"Everyone!" She yelled, "Get away from Napir!"

They didn't have to be told twice as the ground began to shake even harder, quaking so badly that it was hard for them to walk on it without stumbling. Aqualad dragged the heavily injured Superboy away from the growing fissures in the ground, Miss Martian quickly coming to his side and fervently attempting to stem the blood flowing from the hole in his torso. Kid Flash blurred for a moment and then reappeared with Artemis clutched in his arms, her hand cradling the claw marks on her neck as blood dripped down her front. Zatanna found herself leaning against Nightwing as they all watched Napir anxiously.

The clawed hands were multiplying now, from just two to five, then ten, and then more beyond counting. A sea of skeletal black hands were reaching up from the cracks now, grasping at the air, clawing at the edges and leaving long slash marks in the dirt, as if trying to find purchase. Some of the hands braced themselves on the ground and made a pushing motion, as if attempting to pull themselves out of the ground. Zatanna wondered what manner of demon lay beneath all those limbs, and hoped dearly that she would not find out.

"Napir!" She screamed over the howling winds and the angry screeches of the birdmen hovering above. "Control it! Please!"

She felt Nightwing's hand tighten around her arm as they watched with increasing trepidation. The young warlock remained completely still, staring into the sky with bright orange eyes, magic pouring off his body in waves and being immediately sucked into the pit where the demon arms writhed.

"If he loses control," Zatanna said loud enough for Nightwing to hear her, "There's no way we can stop that thing!"

The earth cracked again, the arms pushing the fissures wider and wider, more arms spilling out, growing longer and longer as they clawed their way out of the crevasse.

"That's so gross." Artemis commented, though her voice trembled.

" **HMM… KAR SHA SEEH…"**

They all tensed as a voice like the rolling thunder emerged from somewhere beneath the sea of limbs. Then a giant, bright yellow eye peered out from beneath the writhing mass of limbs, so large that the whole eyeball was not visible through the pit. It had a vertical pupil, darting up and down, side to side, as if to get its bearings.

"That's…. grosser." Kid Flash muttered.

Above them, the screeches of the winged monsters rose in pitch as they descended on the demon attempting to worm its way into the world, hacking away at the limbs reaching out from the rift with sword and halberd.

They were forced to pull back as the limbs surged upwards, one of them grabbing ahold of the creature's leg and digging its claws into its ankle until blood flowed freely. Other hands quickly joined in, gradually pulling the birdman down even as it flapped its wings as hard as possible. More and more limbs extended out from the pit, grabbing the creature's legs, then torso, wings, and finally its neck, yanking the winged monster down into the mass of writhing arms. It's last desperate shriek made them all shiver in fear, grating on their ears as it rose in pitch and then was suddenly cut short.

The last birdman cawed angrily as it flew in circles around Napir, but every time it attempted to swoop down and stab the warlock, the arms shot out from the rift in an attempt to catch it. The birdman retreat, squawking angrily.

There was nothing anyone could do except watch. Without Constantine, they were totally unprepared to face a demonic entity head-on. No one knew what to do, and all the heroes watched helplessly as Napir seemed to become consumed by his own magic.

Then, a woman's voice rumbled in the air.

" _That is quite enough."_

* * *

Translations:

" **Elasa trian noan teloch!"** – You shall die!

" **A graa Orpheus!"** – Behold/Come, Orpheus!

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Sorry for the lack of updates everyone, for all of my stories. I've been in and out of the country in the past year or so. I'm trying to update more, I really am. I promise I've been writing, but I'm just not ready to publish half of my story material.**

 **This chapter is similarly unedited, so I apologize for any grammar/spelling mistakes. I'll review it when I have more time.**


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